A Statistics Korea report released on Thursday has shown that North Korea is increasingly dependent on China for trade. 70% of the total foreign imports and exports in North Korean trade last year were with China. The trade between the two countries amounted to $5.63 billion.
Statistics Korea has been compiling reports on North Korean trade since 2000. Last year’s trade figures is the first time that Sino-North Korean trade has topped 70% since Statistics Korea started recording trade figures involving the North. Tellingly, the trade figures are almost 14% higher than the estimated total percentage of trade figures from 2010.
The increase in Sino-North Korean trade comes at a time when North-South trade has dramatically dropped. In 2010, North-South trade accounted for 31.4% of the North’s total trade. This has fallen last year to 21.3%.
The figures released by Statistics Korea shows huge disparity between per capita gross national income and external trading between the two Koreas. The South’s external trading volume is estimated at 171.4 times larger than the North’s volume, $1.08 trillion in the South compared to $6.3 billion in the North. Per capita gross national income is 18.7 times larger in the South, 24.92 million won in the South which heavily beats the 1.33 million won in the North.
Despite the huge wealth gaps between the two Koreas, the North’s economy grew by 0.8% last year which slightly narrowed the income gap between the two countries. This positive growth is the first such occurrence in three years.
Source: Yonhap News
