Inter - Korean trade has declined 8.5 percent in 2009 from a year earlier as a result of the global economic downturn that slowed demand and investment, South Korean government said Monday.
The Korea Customs Service (KCS) said trade between South Korea and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) dropped to 1.66 billion U.S. dollars from the previous year's record-high of 1.82 billion U.S. dollars.
South Korean exports marked 732.62 million U.S. dollars while imports were 933.46 million U.S. dollars, with a trade deficit of 200.84 million U.S. dollars for last year.
The deficit figure is the highest since trade between the two countries began to pick up seriously in 1999.
Despite chilling relations between the two Koreas following the DPRK's second nuclear test in May last year and a naval clash off the west coast in November, cross-border trade reversed decline in the second half of last year, the KCS said./.