North Korea is a highly urbanized country given its low GDP and impoverished situation. It is highly reliant on oil and refined petroleum imports to power its transport sector, to power many backup generators in the industrial and household sectors, as well as for more mechanized parts of the agricultural sector.

UN sanctions since the end of 2017 have limited North Korean imports of refined petroleum to 500,000 barrels a year and crude oil to just 4 million barrels a year. Petrol and diesel prices inside the country are thus a key barometer for the effect of sanctions and the