Inter-Korean trade hits US$200 mil.

Boosted by the expansion of commercial transactions, inter-Korean trade volume in the first half of this year exceeded US$200 million for the first time, the Ministry of Unification announced Wednesday. In addition, as processing-on-commission (POC) trade of color TVs and telephone sets is scheduled to get underway in the second half, the overall trade volume for this year is expected to rise above the US$333.4 million registered last year.

An unification ministry official said that trade between South and North Korea for the first six months of this year amounted to US$202.8 million, up 22.9% from the US$164.97 million recorded in the same period last year. In particular, he noted that commercial transactions increased 48.1% from a year earlier, indicating improvements in inter-Korean relations.

In inter-Korean trade in the first half of this year, South Korea recorded a nominal surplus of US$73.82 million. In terms of real trade balance excluding non-commercial transactions such as aid for the North and the light-water reactor project underway there, which totaled US$93.05 million, North Korea reported a surplus of US$19.22 million.