North Korea's trade with Mongolia at record high in 2017

SEOUL, Jan. 6 (Yonhap) -- Trade between North Korea and Mongolia reached a record high last year due to a surge in the North's tobacco imports, data showed Saturday.

According to the figure released by the Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency (KOTRA), trade between the two countries jumped by 43 percent on-year to reach US$2.29 million.

The growth is largely due to the increase in Mongolia's exports to the North, which stood at $1.92 million, up 55 percent from a year ago. Imports increased by 2.1 percent to $370,000 during the same period.

On the list of export items from Mongolia to North Korea, tobacco ranked first, accounting for a whopping 92.2 percent of the total. Mongolia has been exporting tobacco to the North since 2016.

Meanwhile, medicine was found to be Mongolia's biggest import item from the North and took up 78 percent of the total as of November 2017.

jaeyeon.woo@yna.co.kr
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