“North Korea may continue to advance its nuclear and missile capabilities while searching for an outlet externally,” the ministry said in its predictions for North Korea in 2018. The ministry will monitor North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s New Year address on January 1 to see if it alludes to such possibilities. North Korea’s economy is already suffering the affects of sanctions, with foreign countries taking fewer North Korean workers as well as cutting humanitarian assistance to the North, according to the Unification Ministry. North Korea’s exports to China, its largest trading partner, tumbled 31.7 per cent to US$1.6 billion in the January-November period, compared to a year earlier. Gas prices in North Korea have risen about two to three times this year, it also said, indicating United Nations Security Council sanctions’ tightening grip on North Korea’s oil procurement.

Source: Philippine Daily Inquirer December 26, 2017 09:56 UTC