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N. Korea-Japan Trade Falls Below $200 Million, Lowest Since 1977

Posted on: Monday, 13 February 2006, 15:00 CST

By Kyodo News International, Tokyo

Feb. 12--SEOUL -- Trade between North Korea and Japan fell to a 28-year low in 2005 as chilly relations between the two countries cut into bilateral economic ties, South Korea's Yonhap News Agency reported Sunday.

The report cited figures compiled by the Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency, or KOTRA, as showing last year's Japan-North Korea trade came to $190 million, the lowest level since 1977. North Korea's exports to Japan amounted to $130 million, while imports from Japan totaled $60 million.

No figure was given for 2004, but Japanese Finance Ministry figures show bilateral trade with North Korea was about 27.2 billion yen in 2004, the lowest since 1977, when the annual yen figure was first made public.

KOTRA said North Korea-Japan trade has declined for the fourth consecutive year since 2002 when Pyongyang admitted its agents had abducted Japanese citizens in the 1970s and 1980s, according to the Yonhap report.

It attributed the fall to a boycott of North Korean goods by the Japanese, the North's expansion of its trade with China and Japanese restrictions on North Korean ships' calls at Japanese ports.

In 2003, Japan stepped up its checks on North Korean ships visiting its ports by implementing rigid safety inspections.

A year before that, it introduced an export control system in which prospective exporters are required to file applications to trade commercial products that can be diverted for use in developing weapons of mass destruction.

In 2004, the Japanese Diet enacted laws allowing the Japanese government to impose economic sanctions on North Korea, including banning trade and cash remittances, without U.N. authorization, and to ban ships deemed a security threat from calling at its ports.

But Tokyo has been cautious about imposing the sanctions, partly due to concern over the effect such action may have on the stalled six-party talks on North Korea's nuclear ambitions.

In contrast to the fall in trade with Japan, the North's trade with China grew 14.8 percent from a year ago to $1.58 billion last year, Yonhap reported, citing figures released earlier this month by the Korea International Trade Association.

Trade between South and North Korea jumped 51.5 percent year-on-year to $1.06 billion in 2005, it said.

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Copyright (c) 2006, Kyodo News International, Tokyo

Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.

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Source: Kyodo News International, Tokyo

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