With borders closed over COVID-19, international sanctions, floods and now a typhoon, things are not boding well for North Korea’s economy.

But new data suggests that North Korea at least had a good year in 2019 — the numbers, released by the country’s five known insurance companies, show that Seoul’s Bank of Korea was right when it claimed that North Korea’s economy resurged following two years of shrinkage.

The data comes from a review of the insurance companies Future Re and Polestar on March 25 and of Samhae on April 21. Rainbow Intermediaries also released