North Korea doubled its imports of cereals from China in June, numbers from Chinese customs collated by the Korea International Trade Association (KITA) show, continuing a trend of higher food purchases when compared to 2016.

Previous NK News analysis indicated last year was a low watermark for food shipments from neighboring China, but cereal imports were higher than their 2016 counterparts from March onwards this year.

Shipments of Chinese cereals rose from $2.3 million in May to $5.8 million the following month, amid reports North Korea is experiencing a drought.

The increase was mainly attributable to a