Some translated version of original VOA article in Korean:
North Korea March Grain Imports Has Significantly Increased
2017.5.3
The amount of grain North Korea imported from China in March increased significantly compared to the same period last year. In addition, the total grain imports from China from January to March this year increased more than four times from the previous year. Kim Hyun-Jin reports.
North Korea imported 4,400 tons of grain from China in March.
South Korea's North Korean agriculture expert Gwang Tae-jin, the Director of North Korea and Northeast Asia's Research Division at GS & J Institute said that he analyzed the data from the Chinese Customs, (N. Korea imported) 3.5 times more than the 1,275 tons imported in February and 33 times more than in the same period last year .
In March, wheat flour, rice, corn and starch were imported, and wheat flour topped the list with 1,788t, followed by rice with 956t, corn with 882t and starch with 773t.
North Korea's imports of grain from China in January to March this year were also more than four times higher than in the same period last year.
According to the data, North Korea imported 6,512 tons of grain from China in the first quarter, up 4.3 times from the same period last year when 1,504 tons were imported.
Grain imports amounted to $ 2,166,000, more than three times higher than $ 705,000 from last year.
In the first quarter of this year, North Korea imported 2,653 tons of wheat from China, followed by starch, corn and rice.
In a telephone conversation with VOA, Gwang Tae-jin said on February 2 that grain imports this year have increased compared to the same period last year, but still insufficient to meet the shortage of 400,000 tons. Therefore, he speculated that large amount of grains could have been imported from China unofficially.
[Interpretation: Kwang Tae-jin, the Director of North Korea and Northeast Asia's Research Division at GS & J Institute] "It is almost impossible to stabilize food prices with this amount of imports, but surprisingly, grain prices have been stabilized in the market. I suspect that the market demand was met via (additional) unofficial import. "
On the other hand, it also showed that there was a significant increase in N. Korea's fertilizer imports from China this March.
According to the data, North Korea imported 53,863 tons of Chinese fertilizer last March. This is 7 times more than the 7,353 tons of imports and 67 percent more than the same period last year.
However, the total amount of fertilizer imported from China by North Korea from January to March this year was 64,274 tons, 57% less than the import of 148,854 tons in the same period last year.
Kwon said that fertilizer imports in the first quarter of this year are similar to those of the normal year, saying that a large amount of fertilizer is needed between April and June when corn and potatoes are planted or transferred.
