Over the last year, official trade between North Korea and China was blatantly falling at a rapid rate. But the real unsolved piece of the puzzle was, ‘By how much?’

According to newly-released official trade data, that answer is now here: Total Chinese-DPRK trade fell by 80.7% year-over-year, according to Dec. 2020 data from the Chinese General Administration of Customs (GAC). Of that, total exports of Chinese goods to North Korea fell by 80.9%, while total imports of North Korean goods into China fell by 77.7%.

In 2020, China officially exported a total of $491 million worth of goods to North