Since Jan. 2020, North Korea’s paranoia surrounding COVID-19 has caused numerous economic problems and mounting humanitarian consequences. Those issues reached what appeared to be a crescendo in early 2021, when market prices and foreign exchange rates hit respective highs and lows for the past ten years. 

But despite a brief respite in border restrictions that led to a significant uptick in DPRK-China trade in early spring, Chinese customs data released Wednesday shows that the country’s exports to North Korea once again plummeted in May. 

At the same time, recent ship tracking data shows North Korean