North Korea adopted a new foreign trade law in January, a change only revealed recently in the latest issues of the state-run Foreign Trade magazine in May and August.  

Among the changes is a new requirement for companies to submit all contracts and separate articles for quotas and tariffs, while the law now explicitly references that the state can create monopolies. However, more flexible conditions are given to services, underlining their rising importance for North Korean revenue generation.

And with the DPRK seemingly over its first COVID-19 outbreak, trade may increase in the coming months