Inter-Korean Trade Dips 20 Percent in January

SEOUL (Yonhap) -- Trade between South and North Korea declined 19.6 percent in January from a year earlier, apparently hit by the slumping South Korean economy and frayed Seoul-Pyongyang relations, the South's official data showed on Feb. 22.

Inter-Korean trade reached US$113 million in January, down from $140.5 million a
year ago, marking the fifth straight monthly fall, the data made available by
Unification Ministry in Seoul said.
"The decline in inter-Korean trade appears compounded by several factors like the
slowing economic downturn and frozen relations between the two Koreas," the
ministry said in the data.
Inter-Korean relations have chilled since conservative South Korean President Lee
Myung-bak took office a year ago, pledging to get tough on North Korea.
The South Korean economy is sharply slumping, due to tumbling exports and
sluggish domestic demand. South Korea is widely expected to post negative
economic growth this year, the first annual contraction since the 1997-98 Asian
financial crisis.

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N. Koreans Sue for Portion of S. Korean Stepmother's Inheritance

SEOUL (Yonhap) -- In a rare legal battle involving the divided Koreas, four North
Koreans recently filed a lawsuit with a South Korean court claiming a portion of
the wealth left behind by their deceased South Korean father, court officials
said on Feb. 24.
The father, identified only by his surname Yoon, came to South Korea during the
1950-53 Korean War, leaving his first wife and five children behind in the North
and having never met them again before his death in 1987. Only one of the five
children accompanied Yoon to the South.
Yoon remarried a South Korean woman, identified only as Kwon, and had four more
children, according to the officials from the Seoul Central District Court.
In the lawsuit filed with the help of a South Korean activist, Yoon's four North
Korean children demanded that they receive a part of the 10 billion won (US$6.6
million) Kwon inherited from her deceased husband following his death.
The unidentified activist, a member of a South Korean relief group, said he
decided to help the North Koreans initiate their legal claim in the South after
learning of their circumstances during a recent visit to the North.
Meanwhile, the Seoul court said that it would look into whether the North Korean
nationals have the right to take legal action in South Korea if they can prove
their filial relations to Yoon.
Most scholars here have said that a North Korean resident is entitled to stand
before a Seoul court.
In 2005, a grandson living in Pyongyang of famed author Hong Myong-hui, who wrote
the popular novel "Hwangjini" about a courtesan, sued a South Korean publishing
company for breaching publication rights. After mediation by the court, the
company gave $10,000 to the grandson and secured publishing rights for the novel
in the South.
(END)