Supply Chain Research

New sanctions against North Korea may be possible as it carried out a test of a new missile system in the past few days. Those would follow sanctions levied in November, which China committed to abiding by in mid December. For December as a whole, however, Chinese imports from North Korea actually increased 19% vs. November and 52% on a year earlier. They reached their highest monthly level since September 2014 as a result of a 21% rise in coal imports – one of the sanctions’ targeted products. If China has stuck to the sanctions, this will presumably slump in January.