NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles!
North Korea abruptly stopped importing COVID-19 prevention and control products from China in May, trade data released by Beijing showed, after the country bought face masks and ventilators from its neighbor in previous months.
Daily new cases of fever in North Korea, as reported by its state news agency, KCNA, have been declining since the reclusive country first acknowledged in mid-May that it was fighting a COVID-19 outbreak. However, how many of those cases tested positive for the coronavirus has yet to be revealed.
North Korea did not import any face masks, thermometers, rubber gloves, ventilators or vaccines from China in May, according to data released by Chinese customs on Monday.
That is compared with imports of more than 10.6 million masks, nearly 95,000 thermometers and 1,000 non-invasive ventilators from China in January-April.
NORTH KOREA REPORTS ANOTHER DISEASE OUTBREAK AMID COVID-19 WAVE
South Korea and the United States have offered to provide help, including vaccines, but Pyongyang has not responded.
In this undated photo distributed on Wednesday, Feb. 12, 2020, by the North Korean government, North Korean Premier Kim Jae Ryon, right top, has a meeting at the emergency anti-epidemic headquarter in Pyongyang, North Korea. Independent journalists were not given access to cover the event depicted in this image distributed by the North Korean government. The content of this image is as provided and cannot be independently verified. (Korean Central News Agency/Korea News Service via AP)
((Korean Central News Agency/Korea News Service via AP))
As Pyongyang has never directly confirmed how many people have tested positive for the virus, the World Health Organization said in June that it assumed the situation was getting worse, not better.
Overall, China’s exports to North Korea slumped 85.2% to $14.51 million in May from $98.1 million in April.
CHINA’S XI JINPING STRESSES COOPERATION WITH NORTH KOREA’S KIM UNDER ‘NEW SITUATION’: STATE MEDIA
A worker repairs the ground at a container port in Qingdao in eastern China’s Shandong province Wednesday, June 8, 2016. China’s exports and imports contracted again in May in a sign of weak global and domestic demand. (Chinatopix Via AP)
(The Associated Press)
The top export items were soybeans, granulated sugar, soybean meal and wheat flour.
North Korea bought $2.97 million worth of soybeans, $2.64 million of granulated sugar, $1.49 million of soybean meal and $846,598 of wheat flour in May, the Chinese customs data showed.
US HOLDS CHINESE GOODS PURPORTEDLY MADE BY NORTH KOREAN LABOR
BEIJING, CHINA – DECEMBER 20: Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian attends a news conference on December 20, 2021 in Beijing, China.
((Photo by VCG/VCG via Getty Images))
Chinese foreign ministry confirmed on April 29 that China had suspended cross-border freight train services with North Korea following consultations due to COVID-19 infections in its border city of Dandong.
