ROK Becomes NK's No.2 Trading Partner
2003-05-12
South Korea has replaced Japan as North Korea's second biggest trading partner for the first time last year.
KOTRA reported that North Korean trade with Japan totaled $366 million in 2002, down 22.2 percent from 2001. Inter-Korean trade was up 59.3 percent from a year ago to $642 million.
South Korea was ranked third in the list of the North's trading partners, with the North's trade with the South and Japan topping $403 million and $475 million, respectively, in 2001.
KOTRA attributed these changes to worsening political relations between Pyongyang and Tokyo, which had an adverse impact on bilateral economic relations.
Relations between the two countries have chilled over the issues of Japanese nationals abducted to the North, coupled with the North's standoff against the U.S. over its nuclear weapons program.
In the reported year, China topped the list of North Korea's official trading partners with $738 million, trailed by Japan, Thailand with $217 million, India with $191 million and Germany with $168 million.
Trade between the two Koreas is not included in North Korea's international trade figures as Pyongyang classes trade with Seoul as domestic.
The KOTRA report also showed that the North's trade recorded $2.26 billion last year, down 0.4 percent from a year ago.
During the reported year, the North's trade deficit amounted to $790 million. Its exports rose 13.1 percent from a year earlier to $740 million, a third straight year of growth, while its imports contracted 5.9 percent year-on-year to $1.52 billion, marking the first fall in four years.
A KOTRA official said the North's trade, which fell to the $1.4 billion level in 1998 and 1999, rose to $1.97 billion in 2000, $2.27 billion in 2001 and $2.26 billion last year, a level seen in the mid-1990s.
''The rise in the North's exports for the third consecutive year reflects the country's resolve to ease its chronic foreign currency shortage,'' the official said.
Source : www.korea.net
