Inter-Koreantradeamountedto$37.18millioninJanuary,down21.5percentfromayearearlier.SouthKoreaimported$20.75millionworthofgoods,a
Inter-Korean trade amounted to $37.18 million in January, down 21.5 percent from a year earlier. South Korea imported $20.75 million worth of goods, a 3.7 percent decrease, while goods worthy $16.42 million were shipped to North Korea, a fall of 36.4 percent.
Major items brought in were agricultural, forestry and fishery products and textiles, as were the case in the last year. Major northbound shipments were steel, metal products, textiles, and agricultural, forestry and fishery goods according to monthly data released by the Ministry of Unification on Thursday , February 19.
The decrease in trade was attributed to 47.7 percent tumble in "non-trade" transactions under inter-Korean cooperative projects, including humanitarian assistance to the North, from a year ago and 8.5 percent drop in deals on processing-on-commission arrangements.
Of the January trade figure of $37.18 million, commercial transactions, including those executed on processing-on-commission formula, came to $25.98 million, up 0.1 percent from a year earlier, accounting for 69.9 percent of the total. The rest was of non-trade nature such as inter-Korean cooperative projects and humanitarian support, which saw a decrease of 47.7 percent.
North Korea posted $4,326,000 surplus in nominal trade and $15.52 million surplus in actual trade, excluding transactions of non-trade nature.
A total of 159 companies participated in the inter-Korean trade of 175 items.
