North Korea's trade with China and Russia appears to have sharply increased this year after its leader Kim Jong-un's summit meetings with the Chinese and Russian presidents. 

Quoting data by the International Trade Center, the Voice of America(VOA) said on Friday that North Korea imported 258 million U.S. dollars worth of products from China in May alone.

That's the largest monthly figure since November 2017, when the figure stood at 280 million dollars. 

The North’s exports to China, however, fell to 16 million dollars in May, marking a sharp drop from the 22 million dollars posted the previous month.

Citing UN data, the VOA said Russia sold 175-thousand barrels of refined oil to North Korea during the first five months of the year, already matching about 75 percent of all such shipments made last year.

UN Security Council sanctions limit oil exports to North Korea to 500-thousand barrels a year.