Buzz
North Korea is widely recognized as one of the most authoritarian and isolated countries globally, infamous for its unreliable missile systems, nuclear arms with uncertain capabilities, and a population grappling with severe food shortages.
Despite its overall struggles, the Hermit Kingdom manages to export goods of notable value to earn foreign currency. These exports include both legal and illegal products sold to international markets.
10. Coal
China’s primary foreign coal supplier might not be the first thing we associate with North Korea, yet the latter has recently claimed this role. Despite a general decline in China’s coal imports from other countries, North Korea’s shipments surged by 25%, reaching 1.8 million tons in May 2015.
For the Kim regime, exporting natural resources provides a straightforward method to generate foreign currency, bypassing the need for structural and institutional reforms that would deregulate the formal economy. Essentially, coal exports enable North Korea to profit without undertaking difficult reforms or relaxing its authoritarian grip on its citizens. While coal mining in developed nations relies on advanced machinery, North Korea’s low labor costs mean much of the work is still performed manually.
A further benefit is that, despite facing UN sanctions, North Korea’s natural resource exports remain unaffected, allowing the country to legally profit from coal sales.
9. Ballistic Missiles
North Korea is infamous for its provocative ballistic missile launches, often paired with grandiose threats of unleashing destruction on capitalist adversaries. However, these missiles also serve a more practical purpose for the regime, generating tens of millions of dollars annually through exports.
Ballistic missile exports not only provide the regime with substantial revenue but also enable North Korea to produce missiles for its own use more efficiently, thanks to economies of scale. However, the country has made a strategic misstep by exporting not just missiles but also manufacturing equipment and technical expertise to nations like Pakistan and Iran. This move risks reducing long-term sales as these customers become more self-reliant.
Additionally, North Korea faces another challenge: its customers have been in peaceful periods, meaning they haven’t used their ballistic missiles and thus have little need to purchase more. Perhaps North Korea should have considered adding an expiration date to its rocket sales.
8. Arms Factories
North Korea ranks among the most militarized countries globally, boasting over one million active military personnel. Equipping such a vast force requires a robust domestic arms industry, which also serves as a critical source of foreign currency for the financially strained nation. Exports include heavy weaponry like rocket launchers and surface-to-air missiles. Additionally, North Korea sometimes constructs arms factories for clients, prioritizing immediate cash over long-term gains—or so it seems.
For nearly three decades, North Korea has been involved in operating two arms factories in Ethiopia, supplying industrial equipment and technical expertise to maintain operations. While one might assume Ethiopia could eventually manage independently, the lack of local scientific and engineering expertise has made this impossible. Furthermore, since the factories were designed by North Korea, only they can provide the necessary spare parts, ensuring Ethiopia remains dependent.
North Korea has also established similar facilities in other African nations, including Nigeria and Madagascar, which likely face the same reliance on North Korean spare parts. Given the regime’s efforts to conceal its illicit activities, it’s probable that more such facilities exist undiscovered. Ironically, the Stalinist state demonstrates a shrewd capitalist acumen that would impress even Henry Ford.
7. Statues
North Korea is home to numerous statues, funded by state resources dedicated to propaganda. The country has honed its statue-building skills to such an extent that it now exports them, with Zimbabwe recently purchasing two statues of President Robert Mugabe for $5 million. Other projects have been completed for nations like Angola, Egypt, Equatorial Guinea, Ethiopia, and even Germany. These artistic endeavors are created at the Mansudae Art Studio, a sprawling facility employing 4,000 North Koreans, including 1,000 artists.
Zimbabwe isn’t North Korea’s largest client, though. In the early 2000s, Namibia commissioned North Korea to construct a massive war memorial in Windhoek for $60 million. Additionally, North Korea built Namibia’s New State House, akin to the US Capitol, completing it in 2008. Perhaps its most notable achievement is the African Renaissance Monument in Senegal, a towering 50-meter (160 ft) bronze statue created by Mansudae to mark Senegal’s 50th independence anniversary.
6. Fine Dining
Surprisingly, authentic North Korean cuisine can be found in restaurants across Asia, offering not only traditional dishes but also high-quality entertainment featuring dances to a blend of North Korean and Western pop music. Since the 1990s, North Korea has operated a chain of restaurants called Pyongyang Restaurants, with an estimated 100 locations throughout Asia.
These restaurants serve three key purposes: generating revenue for the regime, funding North Korean embassies in their host countries, and laundering money from illicit activities. Delving deeper reveals that the staff are not free to leave, as their families in North Korea would face repercussions. The waitresses monitor each other for disloyalty, the chef watches the waitresses, and someone oversees the chef, creating a tightly controlled environment.
5. Textiles
The North Korean–Chinese border is a hub of economic activity, with an estimated quarter of Dandong’s population engaged in business involving North Korea. Among these activities are textile factories operated and staffed by North Koreans. These products are exported under “Made in China” labels, making it impossible to trace their origin back to North Korea.
Textile exports from North Korea are not a recent development, with a Dutch company first importing shirts from the country in the 1970s. While exports declined in the 1990s, they have since rebounded, with firms in the Netherlands and Germany maintaining trade relations. A major draw for manufacturing in North Korea is its exceptionally low labor costs, combined with a skilled and experienced workforce. With a minimum wage of $80 per month, garment production is 30% cheaper than in China.
4. Fake US Banknotes
If North Korea were to lead the world in anything besides totalitarianism and extreme measures, it would be the production of counterfeit currency. The US Secret Service has occasionally stated that North Korean-made fake $100 bills, known as “supernotes,” are among the most advanced counterfeit money globally. This is unsurprising, given the extensive efforts North Korea has made, sourcing machinery from Japan, paper from Hong Kong, and ink from France. The counterfeit bills are so convincing that the US government released a redesigned $100 bill in 2013, incorporating new security features specifically to combat North Korean forgeries.
These new security measures are essential. Supernotes are printed on cotton-and-linen paper identical to that used for genuine US currency, utilizing Swiss-made printing presses and similar inks. Initially, North Korea bleached and reprinted $1 bills, but they eventually mastered the process of creating the paper from scratch.
3. Nuclear Reactors
Perhaps the boldest North Korean export endeavor was its attempt to construct a fully operational nuclear reactor for Syria at Al-Kibar, which Israel destroyed in 2007. The reactor was modeled after North Korea’s own gas-graphite design, a relatively simple structure that allowed North Korea to supply most, if not all, of the components. The facility’s design closely mirrored the Yongbyon reactor, with outer walls added to conceal its distinctive shape, transforming it into an unremarkable box.
Had the reactor not been destroyed, it could have generated sufficient plutonium for one or two nuclear weapons annually once operational. Just three days before the bombing, a North Korean vessel was intercepted delivering nuclear fuel rods, likely intended for the reactor. This entire project reportedly earned North Korea up to $2 billion, with funding sourced from Iran.
2. Methamphetamines
North Korea’s involvement in the drug trade dates back to the 1970s, following its default on international debts and the directive for embassies to become self-sufficient. Initially, embassies used diplomatic immunity to traffic drugs. Over time, North Korea began producing its own illicit substances, particularly methamphetamine, and exporting them through diplomatic channels. North Korean methamphetamine became infamous for its exceptional purity (99%), a result of being manufactured in state-run facilities by skilled chemists.
Since the mid-2000s, however, the drug trade seems to have shifted toward privatization, with the state reducing its direct involvement in production, transportation, and distribution. The decline in purity suggests that manufacturing may no longer occur in state-owned facilities. Despite this, methamphetamine remains widely available in North Korea, where it is reportedly offered as casually as tea. In a nation plagued by food shortages and famine, the appetite-suppressing effects of methamphetamine are particularly advantageous.
1. Foreign Labor
North Korea’s most abundant resource is its people, and the regime has found a way to monetize this by sending workers abroad to earn money, which is then sent back to the country. Families are held hostage to ensure compliance. Over 50,000 North Korean laborers work overseas under harsh conditions, generating nearly $2 billion annually in remittances. These workers endure long hours and poor conditions, often receiving less than 10% of their earnings.
North Korean workers are deployed across more than 40 countries, spanning the Middle East, Africa, and even Europe, though the majority are concentrated in China and Russia, with 20,000 and 19,000 laborers, respectively. They are predominantly engaged in physically demanding sectors such as construction. As the United Nations tightens restrictions on other revenue streams, North Korea has ramped up the export of laborers to compensate for the financial gap created by these sanctions.
