Editor’s note: This article is based on North Korea’s Five-year Economic Strategy for 2016-2020, specifically the foreign trade portion of the document recently acquired by the author. Previous analysis of the strategy can be found here and here.

Russian President Vladimir Putin’s visit to Pyongyang in June for a summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un marked a major milestone in bilateral ties, resulting in a new treaty that not only outlined mutual defense obligations but also featured provisions on economic cooperation, trade and investment.

But this is not the first