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Russia, North Korea agree to step up trade after borders open — embassy

In January 2020, North Korea closed its borders to prevent penetration of the coronavirus infection

Russian Embassy in Pyongyang Lazyhawk/CC BY-SA 3.0/Wikipedia Commons

Russian Embassy in Pyongyang

© Lazyhawk/CC BY-SA 3.0/Wikipedia Commons

PYONGYANG, August 4. /TASS/. Russia and North Korea will make efforts for the soonest possible resumption of trade when the pandemic situation will make it possible to open borders between the two nations, the Russian Embassy in Pyongyang said on Wednesday.

"An agreement was made to invigorate joint efforts for the purpose of preparing all the required preconditions for the accelerated restoration of commodity cross-flows after the borders open, particularly using the mechanisms of the intergovernmental commission on trade-economic and scientific-research cooperation," the diplomatic mission wrote on its page in Facebook.

In January 2020, North Korea closed its borders to prevent penetration of the coronavirus infection.

According to Russian customs, trade between the two countries dropped by 10.8% year-on-year to $42.74 mln in 2020.

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