Inter-Korean trade drops 30 percent in March during political tension

SEOUL, April 27 (Yonhap) -- Monthly trade between South and North Korea fell more
than 30 percent on-year in March, as tensions ran high over South Korea-U.S.
joint military exercise, government data showed Monday.

The two Koreas exchanged goods and services worth US$108.74 million over the last
month, down 31.1 percent from $157.9 million in the same period in 2008, the data
from the Unification Ministry said.
North Korea sealed the border three times in March, disrupting South Korean
production in a joint industrial complex in the North's border town of Kaesong.
Pyongyang imposed the ban in retaliation against a joint military exercise South
Korea staged with the United States from March 9 to 20 south of the border.
Pyongyang blasted the joint exercise as a rehearsal for a "second Korean War,"
while the two allies say the annual drill is purely defensive.
More than 100 South Korean firms operate in the Kaesong industrial venture, just
an hour's drive from Seoul, joining their capital and technology with North
Korea's cheap but skilled labor.
North Korea demanded the South raise wages, pay fees for land use and revise
existing contracts for the Kaesong venture during inter-Korean government talks
last week, the first official dialogue in more than a year. Seoul is gathering
opinion from South Korean firms and plans to respond to the North Korean demand
as early as this week.
The joint venture opened in late 2004 as a key outcome of the first inter-Korean
summit in 2000 between then South Korean President Kim Dae-jung and North Korean
leader Kim Jong-il who agreed to reduce military tension and boost reconciliatory
exchanges.
hkim@yna.co.kr
(END)