{"id":65880,"date":"2026-01-09T07:16:00","date_gmt":"2026-01-08T22:16:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.dailynk.com\/english\/?p=65880"},"modified":"2026-04-07T13:37:16","modified_gmt":"2026-04-07T04:37:16","slug":"suspended-smuggling-drives-up-prices-of-chinese-imports-in-north-koreas-hyesan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.dailynk.com\/english\/suspended-smuggling-drives-up-prices-of-chinese-imports-in-north-koreas-hyesan\/","title":{"rendered":"Suspended smuggling drives up prices of Chinese imports in North Korea&#8217;s Hyesan"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\">After North Korea recently suspended under-the-table trade it had been organizing in Hyesan, Ryanggang province, prices of imported goods have been surging.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\">&#8220;The state-sponsored smuggling that was taking place around the border in Hyesan has been temporarily suspended since the end of last year. As a result, prices of various goods being imported from China are rising across the board,&#8221; a source in the province told Daily NK recently.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\">State-sponsored smuggling appears to have been halted temporarily as North Korea prepares new trading projects following its end-of-year trade review.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\">After the year-end assessment of trade figures, the North Korean government moves ahead with issuing new trade permits for the following year. But trading activities are temporarily halted because permits for 2026 have yet to be issued by the Ministry of External Economic Relations.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\">This is having a direct impact on market prices of imported goods.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\">Since the Hyesan border area is heavily dependent on imported goods, the interrupted import supply immediately led to surging prices. As stocks run low, smugglers and vendors have been hiking prices simultaneously.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\">&#8220;In Hyesan, prices have been rising not only for imported padded coats and sweaters but also for manufactured goods, car parts, and food products like cooking oil. So fewer customers are coming by, and more vendors are going the entire day without making a single sale,&#8221; the source said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\">At one marketplace in Hyesan, imported children&#8217;s padded coats that sold for 300 Chinese yuan (roughly $41) in early December now cost 400 yuan ($55), while imported children&#8217;s shoes that were going for 200 yuan ($27) have gone up 30 yuan to 230 yuan ($32).<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\">Imported sweaters, which had been selling for between 45 and 100 yuan ($6-$14) in early December, have risen in price by 5 to 10 yuan.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\">Chinese-made cooking oil has also gone up from 49,500 North Korean won per kilogram to 55,000 won at present.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\">Prices of imported motorcycles and vehicles have risen by 500 yuan ($69) and 1,000 yuan ($137), respectively, illustrating how prices of most goods imported from China are rising.<\/p>\n<h4 class=\"text-text-100 mt-3 -mb-1 text-[1.125rem] font-bold\"><strong>Superstition compounds spending reluctance<\/strong><\/h4>\n<p class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\">With imports costing more, customers are even less inclined to open their wallets.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\">&#8220;People here are always wary of spending money in January because of a superstitious belief that you&#8217;ll be plagued with expenses throughout the year if you spend a lot this month. With prices so high, people have just stopped buying stuff altogether,&#8221; the source said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\">Even so, smugglers are reportedly raising their prices. Some smugglers are squabbling with wholesalers because they demand that shipments delivered on credit last month be paid at inflated prices.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\">Smugglers are hearing rumors that state-sponsored smuggling may resume in mid-January, but there have been no official announcements or guidelines.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\">Another possibility is that fees paid for trade licenses will be higher than last year, which would likely impact prices of imported goods as well.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailynk.com\/20260109-1\/\">Read in Korean<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>After North Korea recently suspended under-the-table trade it had been organizing in Hyesan, Ryanggang province, prices of imported goods have been surging. &#8220;The state-sponsored smuggling that was taking place around the border in Hyesan has been temporarily suspended since the end of last year. As a result, prices of various goods being imported from China [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":132,"featured_media":57706,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wikipediapreview_detectlinks":true,"footnotes":""},"categories":[67,645,649,2084],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-65880","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","category-economy","category-china-north-korea-border","category-china-north-korea-relations"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v27.7 (Yoast SEO v28.1) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Suspended smuggling drives up prices of Chinese imports in North Korea&#039;s Hyesan - North Korea News \u2014 Daily NK | Latest DPRK Updates 2026<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dailynk.com\/english\/suspended-smuggling-drives-up-prices-of-chinese-imports-in-north-koreas-hyesan\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Suspended smuggling drives up prices of Chinese imports in North Korea&#039;s Hyesan\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"After North Korea recently suspended under-the-table trade it had been organizing in Hyesan, Ryanggang province, prices of imported goods have been surging. &#8220;The state-sponsored smuggling that was taking place around the border in Hyesan has been temporarily suspended since the end of last year. 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