North Korean authorities have recently imported large quantities of rice from northeastern China. The imports appear to be aimed at stabilizing rice prices as North Korea enters a period when food supplies often run short.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, a source in China told Daily NK on Tuesday that North Korea’s large-scale imports of rice from northeastern China began in mid-March. The rice arrived on freight trains from China’s Dandong to North Korea’s Sinuiju.
In January, Chinese customs authorities tightened inspections of projects shipped to North Korea, making it difficult to load Sinuiju-bound freight trains not only with items restricted by U.N. Security Council sanctions on North Korea, but also with food.
Chinese authorities have even blocked shipments of rice, prompting North Korean trading companies to repeatedly request permission to import rice on freight trains even though sanctioned items are not allowed.
As North Korean food shortages worsened this spring, North Korean trading companies pushed even harder for access to Chinese rice, and Chinese customs began approving rice imports on freight trains in mid-March, the source said.
But the rice being imported is of such poor quality that it is typically used to feed livestock in China, the source said. The rice is powdery and often moldy or mixed with dirt and other adulterants – in short, it is a miserable quality of rice that is not even sold in the Chinese market.
The rice sells for RMB 2,300 (about USD 316) per ton. In fact, the rice being imported by North Korea costs only half as much as the benchmark for Asia, Thai long-grain white rice (free on board, 100% Grade B), which was selling for USD 607 per ton on Mar. 27.
“While North Korean trading companies spend a lot of money on luxury products, they can’t buy expensive rice because their rice budget is meager. This suggests that rice isn’t considered an important product,” the source said.
The Chinese are still leery about trade in Dandong and Sinuiju
Curiously, the Chinese trains from Dandong do not carry any cargo when they return across the border from Sinuiju, the source said.
Because day laborers often help load and unload trade goods from freight trains in China, trade between North Korea and China is difficult to keep from prying eyes. The Chinese government appears to be so sensitive about the cargo of freight trains running between Dandong and Sinuiju because the international community is closely monitoring Dandong in connection with sanctions against North Korea.
This may be why trade between North Korea and China has recently picked up in Hunchun, in China’s Jilin Province, rather than in Liaoning Province.
“Not even steel or cement can be sent from Dandong to North Korea. Wallpaper is one of the only building materials that can be loaded onto trains there. But in Hunchun, steel products cross the border easily, and processed goods such as wigs and false eyelashes are also sent from North Korea to Hunchun,” the source said.
Translated by David Carruth. Edited by Robert Lauler.
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