BSS, Dandong :
Traders from North Korea visit Yuan Huan’s shop in the Chinese border city of Dandong several times a month to place orders, bringing their own translators and wads of cash.
Yuan, manager of Sangle Solar Power, said sales to North Koreans have soared in the past two years, one of the border businesses still thriving despite growing US pressure for China to limit commerce with the Stalinist regime.
Since North Korea mostly relies on outdated generators, blackouts are common and solar panels are prized for their role as backup power.
Berkeley-based researchers at the Nautilus Institute estimated that at the end of 2014, about two percent of North Korea’s population had acquired solar panels.
And despite new United Nations sanctions further narrowing the categories of goods that can be traded with the hermit state this month, solar panels have remained off the growing blacklist.
Yuan’s shop offers a window into how Chinese traders do business with North Korea, a country with few allies and whose economy relies heavily on China’s patronage.
Traders from North Korea visit Yuan Huan’s shop in the Chinese border city of Dandong several times a month to place orders, bringing their own translators and wads of cash.
Yuan, manager of Sangle Solar Power, said sales to North Koreans have soared in the past two years, one of the border businesses still thriving despite growing US pressure for China to limit commerce with the Stalinist regime.
Since North Korea mostly relies on outdated generators, blackouts are common and solar panels are prized for their role as backup power.
Berkeley-based researchers at the Nautilus Institute estimated that at the end of 2014, about two percent of North Korea’s population had acquired solar panels.
And despite new United Nations sanctions further narrowing the categories of goods that can be traded with the hermit state this month, solar panels have remained off the growing blacklist.
Yuan’s shop offers a window into how Chinese traders do business with North Korea, a country with few allies and whose economy relies heavily on China’s patronage.
