N. Korea adopts law on inspecting goods amid border opening speculation

North Korea 15:27 June 01, 2023

SEOUL, June 1 (Yonhap) -- North Korea has adopted a law designed to beef up inspections of export and import goods, state media reported Thursday, amid speculation the secretive regime may soon reopen its border with China following years of COVID-19 restrictions.

The decision was made at a session of the Permanent Commission of the Presidium of the Supreme People's Assembly, the North's parliament, according to the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA). It did not disclose when the session was held.

The law on the examination of export and import goods will "help guarantee the quality and quantity of export and import goods and ensure the stability of trade by strictly establishing the stricter discipline and order inspections," the KCNA said in an English-language dispatch.

Speculation has been growing that the North may reopen its border with China as early as this month to permit people's cross-border movements after it imposed rigid COVID-19 restrictions in early 2020.

The North's trade with China has increased to near the pre-pandemic level since the country resumed operations of cargo trains crossing a railway bridge over its border river with the neighbor in September 2022. Railway-based cargo transportation also restarted between the North and Russia in November.

South Korea's spy agency told lawmakers Wednesday that the North increased the frequency of operating freight trains with China last month and has been preparing to further open a road linking the Chinese border city of Dandong and the North's Sinuiju.

But the pandemic still appears to be the main factor for the North's decision on the border reopening. The massive outbreak of "fever" patients in Pyongyang in May prompted the North to restrict people's movements in some areas of the capital, according to the National Intelligence Service.