North Korea’s trade volume shrank 15 percent on-year in 2017 due largely to the implementation of strong international sanctions. 

In a report released on Monday, the Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency said the North's trade volume, excluding inter-Korean trade, amounted to five-and-a-half billion U.S. dollars last year.
 
According to the report, the North’s exports slipped more than 37 percent to roughly one-point-eight billion dollars during the same period, while imports grew one-point-eight percent to amount to nearly three-point-eight billion dollars.  

As a result, the North posted a trade deficit of two billion dollars, or two times larger than 890 million dollars posted in 2016. 

The trade agency assessed that the decline in the North’s overall trade volume resulted from the international community’s implementation of UN Security Council resolutions sanctioning the North in response to the regime’s nuclear and missile tests.