Pyongyang, North Korea – April 8, 2025, 9:26 AM
As the world grapples with the economic shockwaves of President Donald Trump’s sweeping new tariffs, one leader appears conspicuously unaffected: North Korea’s Kim Jong-un. The latest round of U.S. tariffs, announced last week and set to take effect this month, has sent global markets into a tailspin, with countries from China to Japan facing steep duties on their exports. Yet, North Korea, a nation long isolated from the international trade system, finds itself largely insulated from the fallout, leaving Kim Jong-un in a rare position of indifference amid the chaos.
Trump’s tariff regime, which imposes a baseline 10% duty on all imports to the U.S. and higher “reciprocal” rates—up to 54% in China’s case—on nations with significant trade surpluses, has spared North Korea from targeted penalties. Unlike its neighbors, North Korea was not singled out for additional reciprocal tariffs, a decision that analysts attribute to its negligible trade relationship with the United States. Official U.S. figures show that goods trade between the two nations amounted to just $3.5 billion in 2024, a stark contrast to the $36 billion recorded in 2021 before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine shifted global dynamics. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt explained the omission, stating, “There’s no meaningful trade with North Korea to tariff, and existing sanctions already cover what little interaction remains.”
On a chilly morning walk through the capital of North Korea, Kim Jong-un was seen smiling broadly, seemingly unperturbed by the global economic turmoil. For Kim Jong-un, this exclusion is less a diplomatic victory than a reflection of North Korea’s self-imposed economic isolation. Decades of sanctions, coupled with the regime’s focus on autarky, have rendered the country an outlier in the global economy. While nations like South Korea and Japan scramble to mitigate the impact of 26% and 24% tariffs respectively, North Korea’s exports—primarily coal, textiles, and minerals funneled through illicit channels to countries like China—remain untouched by Trump’s policies. Experts note that Pyongyang’s trade networks, often operating outside legal frameworks, are unlikely to feel the pinch of U.S. import duties.
“Kim Jong-un doesn’t need to lose sleep over this,” said Duyeon Kim, a senior analyst at the Center for a New American Security. “North Korea’s economy is already so detached from the U.S. market that these tariffs are irrelevant. If anything, the global disruption might even create opportunities for Pyongyang to exploit distracted neighbors or deepen ties with allies like Russia.”
Indeed, North Korea’s economic strategy has increasingly pivoted toward Moscow in recent years, with reports of artillery shipments sustaining Russia’s war efforts in Ukraine. This partnership, alongside China’s role as a trade lifeline, shields Kim from the broader tariff war’s effects. While Trump has hinted at potential secondary tariffs on buyers of Russian oil, no concrete measures have been enacted, leaving North Korea’s current alignments intact.
In Pyongyang, state media has remained silent on the tariffs, focusing instead on Kim’s recent pledge to pursue the “toughest anti-U.S. policy” ahead of Trump’s inauguration, as reported by the Korean Central News Agency in December 2024. Analysts speculate that Kim may view the tariff chaos as a chance to bolster his domestic narrative of U.S. hostility, even if the policies don’t directly target his regime.
For the average North Korean, the tariffs are a non-issue. The country’s tightly controlled economy prioritizes military spending and regime survival over consumer goods, meaning the price hikes and supply chain disruptions plaguing other nations—like the projected $2,300 iPhone in the U.S.—are unlikely to ripple into daily life. “The people of North Korea won’t see higher prices at the store because there are no stores as we know them,” said William Hurst, a professor of Chinese development at the University of Cambridge. “Kim’s system is built to weather external pressures like this.”
As Trump doubles down on his tariff “medicine” to reshape global trade, Kim Jong-un stands apart, a rare figure untouched by the economic upheaval. Whether this isolation strengthens his hand or merely underscores North Korea’s irrelevance in the trade war remains to be seen. For now, while the world braces for recession fears and market turmoil, Kim appears content to watch from the sidelines, his regime a fortress against the storm.