North Korea capped off last year with its strongest quarter of trade with China since 2019, customs data shows, signaling less anxiety about inbound goods despite mass COVID-19 caseloads just across the country’s northern border. 

According to China’s General Administration of Customs (GAC), North Korea imported roughly $120 million worth of goods from China in Dec. 2022, while exports remained around $20 million. The figures put the country’s fourth-quarter trade volume at $370 million, or nearly 100 times higher than the same period in 2020 when the pandemic gripped the global economy.