The Unification Ministry has assessed that North Korea-China trade has virtually come to a stop. 

A ministry official told reporters on Thursday that trade between the two countries amounted to one-point-seven million dollars in October, down 99-point-four percent from the same period last year.  

Quoting data from China’s customs agency, the official said since this March, the amount of trade between the North and China failed to top 100 million dollars, then slipped below two million dollars in October.  

The official said it would be safe to say that the North’s economy is facing extremely hard times when considering its dependency on China.  

The official added that trade between the two countries in the first ten months of this year plunged more than 76 percent on-year.