COVID-19 “significantly affected” North Korea’s illicit trade with the outside world in the first half of 2021, a forthcoming U.N. report seen by NK Pro shows, resulting in historically low coal and fuel exports. 

While that means fewer resources for North Korea’s nuclear weapons, missiles and other illicit activities, observers said the plummeting trade could also be worsening humanitarian conditions at a time when the country is going through what it has called a “food crisis.”

The forthcoming U.N. Panel of Experts (PoE) report indicates that COVID-19 border closures have hit North