Chinese exports to North Korea sharply decreased in Aug. 2020, corroborating reports of diminished trade caused by the DPRK’s renewed COVID-19-related quarantine measures.

Of the goods that were traded, flour was conspicuously absent while healthcare equipment and heavy tire exports from China became top imports by value.

The shift in focus from food to sanitation and healthcare items reveals that Pyongyang has shifted its import budget to COVID-19 management, following big grain aid shipments from Russia. North Korea notably made an unprecedentedly large investment in infrared thermometers, for example.

Negating months of