Q: Can I obtain data on North Korea import/export of luxury goods from UN Comtrade?

The UN Comtrade database (see http://comtrade.un.org/) contains detailed import and export data of countries and areas in the world. North Korea does not report to us currently. However, many countries report their trade with North Korea. So, the trade data of North Korea are estimated from mirror statistics.

UN Comtrade does not have a standard definition of luxury goods. It is advised to consult other sources to define luxury goods in terms of HS commodity codes. You can also have a look at the HS nomenclatures and its editions (HS is the combined codes across all editions). Please refer to product classifications link at: Reference Tables and List of Parameter Codes.

A lot of the luxury goods can be found in HS Chapter 85 and higher chapters.