The Ministry of Foreign Trade was newly established in September 1998 following the adoption of the new 1998 "Kim Il Sung Constitution".

Some of its tasks were delegated to two organizations founded in 2010 and 2013, respectively: The Joint Venture Investment Committee (JVIC) was established to handle foreign investment and the State Economic Development Commission (SEDC) to manage the Special Economic Zones of North Korea.

In 2012, prominent portraits of Karl Marx and Vladimir Lenin were removed from the facade of the ministry on Kim Il Sung Square in Pyongyang, which observers took for indirect signs of change brought about by the leadership of Kim Jong Un.

According to the Institute for Far Eastern Studies: "the creation of this new Cabinet-affiliated ministry can be interpreted as an attempt to reach a breakthrough in North Korea's stagnating international economic cooperation ... a measure taken to increase the efficiency of decision-making and implementation of foreign trade-related issues, and to put an end to the confusion and inefficient inter-competition that arose out of the creation of these additional agencies".

According to Martyn Wililams of North Korea Tech, the website came "at an interesting time as Kim Jong Un has pegged economic development as a major goal for the country, as South Korean companies are weighing projects that could help relations between the two Koreas but as the international community has some of the strictest sanctions ever on the country".