South Korean data show that trade between North Korea and Mongolia reached a record high last year due to large tobacco imports from Mongolia.

According to figures released by the Ulaanbaatar chapter of the Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency (KOTRA), trade between the two countries jumped 43 percent year-on-year to nearly two-point-three million dollars in 2017.

Mongolia's exports to the North surged 55 percent to one-point-nine million dollars, and drove up total trade volume. Meanwhile, its imports from the North rose two percent to reach 370-thousand dollars.

KOTRA said that Mongolia's number one export item to North Korea, tobacco, accounted for over 92 percent of total exports to the country in monetary terms.

Meanwhile, medicine was found to its biggest import from the North, taking up 78 percent of the total as of November.

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