{"id":1690,"date":"2026-07-31T06:10:45","date_gmt":"2026-07-31T06:10:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/valutednews.com\/?p=1690"},"modified":"2026-07-31T06:10:45","modified_gmt":"2026-07-31T06:10:45","slug":"north-korea-growth-topped-3-for-third-straight-year-in-2025-seoul","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/valutednews.com\/?p=1690","title":{"rendered":"North Korea growth topped 3% for third straight year in 2025: Seoul"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"North<\/div>

<\/p>\n

\n

North Korea\u2019s economy grew more than three percent for a third straight year in 2025, South Korea\u2019s central bank estimated Friday, as Pyongyang continues to deepen economic and military ties with Russia.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Bank of Korea (BoK) has published annual estimates of the North\u2019s economy since 1991, based on its own intelligence and trade data because Pyongyang does not release official statistics.<\/p>\n

The isolated North\u2019s real gross domestic product expanded 3.5 percent to 38.26 trillion ($26.6 billion) won last year, the Bank of Korea said in its report.<\/p>\n

Pyongyang has deepened economic and military ties with Russia, supplying troops and munitions for Moscow\u2019s war in Ukraine in exchange for financial support, food, energy and military technology, analysts say.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe expansion of economic cooperation with Russia was a major driver of North Korea\u2019s growth last year,\u201d a BoK official told AFP.<\/p>\n

Higher weapons exports to Russia boosted related manufacturing, while more Russian tourists and expanded transport links lifted construction and services, she added.<\/p>\n

More than 7,000 North Korean troops were killed or wounded while fighting alongside Russian forces in the Kursk region during the 2024-2025 campaign, the Kyiv Independent quoted Ukraine\u2019s military intelligence agency as saying.<\/p>\n

The BoK said North Korea\u2019s exports rose 30 percent last year to $470 million, driven by \u201cprepared feathers and wigs\u201d, as well as unspecified toys and sporting goods.<\/p>\n

The BoK estimate came as Ukrainian rights group Truth Hounds claimed Russia and North Korea were close to completing their first road bridge, citing their own investigation.<\/p>\n

The bridge could become \u201ca direct artery for moving North Korean troops, construction brigades and military officials into Russia, with Russian technology and resources flowing in the opposite direction\u201d, the group said in its report.<\/p>\n

The BoK official said North Korea\u2019s gross national income also \u201creceived a boost from a sharp rise in foreign currency earnings\u201d linked to the deployment of its troops to Russia.<\/p>\n

GNI \u2014 the total income earned by all residents \u2014 rose rose 9.4 percent to 48.5 trillion won ($33.8 billion) last year. That amounts to less than two percent of South Korea\u2019s, according to the BoK report.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

North Korea\u2019s economy grew more than three percent for a third straight year in 2025, South Korea\u2019s central bank estimated Friday, as Pyongyang continues to deepen economic and military ties with Russia. The Bank of Korea (BoK) has published annual estimates of the North\u2019s economy since 1991, based on its own intelligence and trade data…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1691,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/static.arynews.tv\/zip-archives\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/ARY-1200-x-675-px-88.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[570,1487,3244,3247,3246,3245,522],"class_list":["post-1690","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international-news","tag-growth","tag-korea","tag-north","tag-seoul","tag-straight","tag-topped","tag-year"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/valutednews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1690","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/valutednews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/valutednews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/valutednews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/valutednews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1690"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/valutednews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1690\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/valutednews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1691"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/valutednews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1690"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/valutednews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1690"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/valutednews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1690"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}