This is part one of a two part series on the North Korean products that can be found just across the border in China.

At the border crossing between the Chinese town of Hunchun and the DPRK’s Rason Special Economic Zone, a few trucks line up ready to pass customs. After clearing they will cross the River Tumen over the completed-in-2016 Quanhe-Wonjong bridge, whose towering stilts dwarf its 1930s Japanese-built predecessor.

With ever-greater concern over the implementation of North Korea-focused UN sanctions in an increasingly fraught international political environment, traffic across the many bridges over the Rivers Tumen/Tuman and Yalu/Amnok