North Korea
Democratic People's Republic of Korea
U.S. sanctions — North Korea sanctions. Comprehensive prohibitions; near-total trade and financial embargo.
As of August 2026 — verify with OFAC and screen counterparties with the xin.bz OFAC search.
- Region
- Asia · Eastern Asia
- Capital
- Pyongyang
- Population
- 26,571,036 (2025)
- Government
- dictatorship, single-party communist state
- Currency
- North Korean won (KPW)
- Official languages
- Korean
- Spoken languages
- Korean
- Written scripts
- Hangul
- Area
- 120,538 km²
- Coastline
- Coastal
- UN member
- Yes
- Borders
- China , South Korea , Russia
Political stability
71 / 100
Economic stability
26 / 100
Population stability
78 / 100
0–100, higher is more stable. Political: World Bank governance score. Economic: government effectiveness, regulatory quality, and inflation proximity to 2% (World Bank). Population: stability of growth and net migration rates (World Bank).
Trade profile
- Key exports
- fake hair, iron alloys, tungsten ore, electricity, cars (2023)
- Key imports
- processed hair, plastic products, garments, fabric, soybean oil (2023)
- Natural resources
- coal, iron ore, limestone, magnesite, graphite, copper, zinc, lead, precious metals, hydropower
- Primary route
- Transpacific services to North America
- Secondary route
- Asia–Europe services via the Suez Canal
xin.bz coverage
Future Insight ·
Rearming the World Is Becoming a Race for Explosives, Factories, Critical Minerals, and Trusted Supply Chains
Future Insights deep dive — the 2026–2032 global rearmament cycle: a ~2.6 million tonne military replacement obligation, and the industrial race in explosives, propellant, rare-earth magnets, and trusted supply chains.
Trade research
- WTO trade profile — tariffs, trade in goods and services, top partners
- World Bank country data — GDP, trade share of GDP, logistics indicators
- OEC trade profile — export/import composition and partners, visualized
- ITC Trade Map — detailed trade statistics by product (ITC/UN Comtrade)
- CIA World Factbook — geography, economy, transportation infrastructure
xin.bz can watch North Korea for you — email alerts when new disruptions hit. Start free
Sources: mledoze/countries (ODbL), CIA World Factbook (public domain), World Bank Open Data (CC BY-4.0), flag-icons (MIT). Stability scores are xin.bz composites of the cited World Bank indicators; routes and commodity notes are xin.bz assessments. Informational only — verify with official sources.