Republic of Korea, Ministry of Unification
3/2/2006
The trade volume between North Korea and Japan amounted to around 200 million U.S. $, recording a negative year-on-year rate of 22.9 percent. The North’s export to Japan decreased 19 percent, totaling 132 million U.S. $ while the North’s import from Japan shrank by 29.2 percent, recording 63 million U.S. $, down from 900 million U.S. $ in 2004.
The top five export items including marine products, mineral fuels, electrical equipment, vegetables and clothing, took up 74 percent of the total export volume, about 100 million U.S. $. Among them, marine products recorded a minus 49.4 percent due to Japan’s tightening crackdown on country of origin but still accounted for the largest share of the total export volume, 27.7 percent. While electrical equipment and clothing decreased by 18.9 percent to 20 million U.S. $ and by 46.3 percent to 10 million U.S. $ respectively, export of vegetables snowballed by 60.2 percent to 200 million U.S. $.
With the major import items on the downward slope, import of vehicles took up the largest share of the total import volume, recording 300 million U.S. $. The top five import items including vehicles, electrical equipment, machineries, artificial filament, and cigarettes, amounted to 400 million U.S. $, accounting for 65.3 percent of the total import volume.
(This part is excerpted from the KITA’s report on the status on bilateral trade between North Korea and China in 2005 written in Korean)
Since 2002 when the issue of the Japanese abductees bulged out, bilateral trade volume has been on the decrease for four consecutive years. The issue worsened the North’s images and raised anti-sentiment among the Japanese consumers, which deepened their reluctance to buy North Korean goods.
The increase in bilateral trade will be expected to be restrained by two factors: Japan’s ban on the entry into its ports by ships weighing over 100 metric tons which are not insured, and Japan’s regulations on export of strategic goods to North Korea.
