SEOUL: North Korea may look to seafood exports as a way of boosting its stricken economy, reports The Korea Times. With economic sanctions putting paid to mineral exports — a major font of the North Korean economy — the country’s foreign trade managers may have no choice but to look to fish products, wrote Andrei Lankov, a lecturer at Seoul University in an op-ed.
Seafood has always been a major North Korea export. In the 1990s, before coal and iron ore took over around 2005, it was the largest export item with the lion’s share going to China.
“Now it seems that the trade in fish products will intensify,” said Lankov. “Unlike coal or other minerals, seafood exports are not subject to international sanctions. One might suspect that wealthy North Korea businesspersons, who until recently have made good money in coal mining, will switch to fishing.”
