Freight trains are traveling across the China-DPRK border for the first time since Aug. 2020, a promising development for millions of North Koreans suffering from acute commodity shortages and chronic food insecurity.

But the apparent revival of bilateral trade — which recently notched a historic low — faces new uncertainties, as major Chinese ports reel from confusion and congestion and policymakers in Beijing continue their whack-a-mole approach to COVID-19 in the face of the rapidly spreading Omicron variant. 

Throughout the pandemic, Chinese authorities have instituted ad hoc restrictions and lockdowns in key port cities such as Tianjin, Ningbo-Zhoushan