For the third year in a row, China has accounted for more than 90 percent of North Korea's international trade.

Sources in Beijing and the Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency(KOTRA) say a record high 92-point-five of the North’s trades last year were conducted with China.

Beijing-Pyongyang trades last year was worth more than six-billion U.S. dollars, up about six percent from a year earlier.

Russia was the the North's second largest trade partner last year, but only accounted for one-point-two percent of the North’s trades.  

The United States and other countries frequently call on China to use its overwhelming trade leverage over North Korea to influence Pyongyang's decisions about nuclear weapons and missile programs, but China says it has only limited influence.