North Korea has recently stepped up imports of various supplies from China. The country carefully categorizes goods as sanctioned or non-sanctioned, using different import channels for each type.
According to a Daily NK source in China recently, North Korea has been importing a wide range of items including textiles, electronics, construction supplies, and foodstuffs. North Korean traders in China are particularly shipping large quantities of sanctioned items into North Korea through Hunchun or Changbai in China’s Jilin province.
In early May, cargo trucks loaded with refrigerators, freezers, fans, TVs, electric rice cookers, and other appliances entered North Korea’s Rason through Hunchun.
Materials for outward processing items such as wigs, fake eyelashes, and watches have also arrived in Rason via Hunchun. Meanwhile, sanctioned items including car parts, equipment, machinery, steel, and aluminum reportedly moved through Quanhe customs house in Hunchun to the Wonjong-ri customs house in Rason.
Up to 300 or more trucks, each carrying over 10 tons of cargo, cross from Hunchun’s Quanhe customs house into North Korea daily, the source said.
This traffic pattern exists because Chinese customs authorities conduct relatively loose inspections on items entering North Korea through the Hunchun-Rason and Changbai-Hyesan routes, while also imposing lighter customs charges.
“Hunchun charges low customs fees and essentially allows sanctioned items through,” the source explained. “You simply can’t get items like electronics or aluminum into North Korea overland except through Hunchun.”
The route connecting Dandong in China’s Liaoning province and Sinuiju in North Korea’s North Pyongan province — once the primary overland trading channel between the two countries — now mainly handles imports from China and exports of non-sanctioned items.
Daily NK previously reported that cargo trucks entering Sinuiju through Dandong in early May carried foodstuffs such as rice, processed foods, sugar, and cooking oil, along with building supplies including lime powder, flooring, water and sewage pipes, toilets, and showerheads.
While various goods enter North Korea from China along the Dandong-Sinuiju route, sanctioned items are rarely found among shipments entering through this channel, the source noted.
This is because Chinese customs authorities strictly inspect items entering North Korea through Dandong customs house and impose higher customs charges compared to Hunchun or Changbai.
Since China finds international monitoring of its sanctions implementation burdensome, it maintains separate export routes to North Korea — some that permit exports of sanctioned items and others that don’t.
However, trucks affiliated with North Korean consulates in China frequently use the Dandong-Sinuiju route. Though smaller in size, these vehicles transport luxury goods because Chinese customs authorities don’t rigorously inspect them.
