ID :
36720
Sat, 12/20/2008 - 16:29
Auther :

Inter-Korean trade falls for second straight month

SEOUL, Dec. 20 (Yonhap) -- Trade between South and North Korea has decreased for the second consecutive month due to an economic downturn and frozen cross-border relations, the Unification Ministry said Saturday.

Inter-Korean trade volume fell 27.7 percent in November from the previous year to
US$142.72 million, according to the ministry data posted on its website.
"Payments to North Korea are mostly made in dollars or euro, so the weak Korean
currency has been the primary reason for the falling trade," a ministry official
said.
More than 80 South Korean firms produce watches, shoes, clothes and kitchenware
at a joint industrial complex in the North's border town of Kaesong. North Korea
also exports sand to the South.
In October, South and North Korea traded goods and services worth US$163.06
million, down 23.2 percent from a year earlier.
Inter-Korean trade volume for December is expected to drop further after North
Korea curtailed business operations in the Kaesong complex in retaliation against
Seoul's hardline policy toward it. The number of South Koreans allowed to stay in
Kaesong was cut by half as of Dec. 1. The North has also suspended tours to its
Kumgang mountain resort and curtailed border traffic.
Meanwhile, inter-Korean trade from January to November has reached US$1.69
billion, an increase by 3.7 percent from the same period in 2007.

X