Imports thatgive a window into life in the hermit state
China is widely known as North Korea’s primary trading partner – a status it attained as the Hermit Kingdom increasingly isolated itself from the world. The two communist countries’ friendly ties have been strained by accusations that China is sustaining the development of Pyongyang’s nuclear weapons programme, which more and more poses a threat to the US and its allies in the region.
Although China has agreed to stop buying North Korean iron, lead and coal as part of UN-approved sanctions last month, North Korea continues to be a major importer of Chinese goods. Imports from China represented 85 per cent of North Korea’s overall US$3.47 billion in imports in 2015, according to the Observatory of Economic Complexity, a US-based trade monitor.
A South China Morning Post examination of North Korea’s imports from China from the start of 2016 through mid-2017, showed that its importing of five rarely discussed items – out of more than 800 categories of imported goods – is about much more than mere survival.
(1) Gaming equipment
North Korea announced through its state-run media outlet Arirang Meari last week that the country’s new shooting simulation video game – in which US soldiers are the enemy – has “become very popular” as tension rises with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and US President Donald Trump recently exchanging escalatory threats with overtones of war.
The video game “Hunting Yankee” was the latest used by Pyongyang as propaganda to cultivate patriotism, which followed the war-themed games “Confrontation War, ” “Guardian” and “Goguryeo Battlefield”, also released earlier this month.
It was unclear whether these games were designed to be played on computers or phones. Given that most North Koreans do not own their own computers for personal home use, the importing of “video game controllers and gaming equipment inside indoor entertainment venues” from China could offer a glimpse into the closed country’s gaming and entertainment culture.
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North Korea has spent over US$2 million on purchases of entertainment items under this category in the past 1.5 years. This grouping includes not only hand-held game consoles but also pool tables, dice and card games and coin operated electronic game machines, according to Chinese customs data.
The quantity of imports in this category, however, is in sharp decline as the number fell from 7 million pieces in the first quarter of 2016 to just above half a million pieces in the latest quarter of 2017.
(2) Surveillance cameras
The world was taken by surprise when it first learnt that North Korea had bought 85,570 surveillance cameras from China from 2009 to 2011, according to South Korea’s Chosun newspaper. But it will now come as no surprise to observers that North Korea imported nearly 20 times that number in the 1.5 years to mid-2017, reflecting a trend toward tighter monitoring of activity within the country.
A total of 1,669,725 units were recorded under the “surveillance cameras, projectors and TV antennas” group of Chinese exports to North Korea.
