North Korea's trade with China more than tripled last year due to the resumption of freight train operations between the two nations.

According to trade data by China's General Administration of Customs on Wednesday, the trade volume between the two nations totaled one billion-28 million U.S. dollars in 2022 to soar 233 percent from a year earlier.

The North's imports from China spiked 244 percent on-year to 894 million dollars, while exports grew 131 percent to 134 million dollars last year.

The increase came on the back of resumed train operations between China’s Dandong and the North’s Sinuiju in January of last year after being suspended in August of 2020 due to the spread of COVID-19.

However, last year’s trade volume still represents a drop of 63 percent from two-point-79 billion dollars tallied in 2019 before the pandemic.