North Korea did not trade a single item with Russia in Jan. 2021, according to new data from Russia’s Federal Customs Service, doling out yet another devastating blow to the DPRK economy after it suffered a slump in imports and exports for much of 2020.

Meanwhile, North Korea’s largest trade partner, China, has not published any 2021 DPRK trade data as of March 16. That’s serious news to some experts and researchers, who use official Russian and Chinese trade data as indicators of the overall North Korean economy’s health.

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