Two-wayinter-Koreantradereached$671millionforthefirst11monthsofthisyear,up18.2percentfromayearearlier.SouthKoreaimported$264mil
Two-way inter-Korean trade reached $671 million for the first 11 months of this year, up 18.2 percent from a year earlier. South Korea imported $264 million worth of goods, 6.4 percent increase year on year, while worthing $406 million were shipped to North Korea, up 27.3 percent.
Major items brought in were agricultural-forestry-fishery products and textiles, as were the case for many months. Major northbound shipments were agricultural-forestry-fishery products, textiles, chemical industrial goods and miscellaneous items, following a similar pattern for months, according to monthly data released by the unification ministry Tuesday (December 16).
The increase in bilateral trade was attributable to a steady rise in commercial transactions and deals on processing-on-commission arrangements as well as to "non-trade" transactions under inter-Korean cooperative projects, including humanitarian assistance and provision of food loans to the North.
During the January-November period, the South posted a $142 million surplus in nominal trade, while the North registered a $151 million surplus in actual trade, not counting the value of non-trade transactions such as humanitarian assistance.
Of the bilateral trade of $671 million, commercial transactions amounted to $377 million, up 20.6 percent from a year ago, accounting for 56.2 percent of the total. The rest was of non-trade nature such as inter-Korean cooperative projects and humanitarian support, which came to $294 million, an increase of 15.2 percent from a year earlier.
Transactions under the cooperative project category reached $41 million, down 47.7 percent from 2002, accounting for 6.2 percent of the total trade and 14.0 percent of non-trade nature, respectively. Falling under this category were materials for the construction of light-water reactors in North Korea valued at $24 million, those of the Mt. Geumgang tourism project $13 million and those of other projects worth $4.4 million.
Shipments of goods in support of the North totaled $252 million, a rise of 45.1 percent from a year ago, accounting for 37.6 percent of the entire trade and for 86.0 percent of non-trade nature, respectively. Of the shipments, $126 million went to fertilizer and other purely humanitarian aid, $97 million to food loans and $29 million to materials and equipment needed to connect inter-Korean railways and roads.
Four hundred fifty-one companies, including 110 under the processing-on-commission basis, participated in the two-way trade of 572 items, including 233 under the processing-on-commission formula.
Source : www.korea.net
