According to the South's Korea Customs Service, the volume of trade between the Koreas reached USD 106.5 million in May, a fall of 38 percent from USD 171.9 million in the same month of last year.The May figure represented the ninth consecutive monthly on-year decrease in inter-Korean trade since September last year.
The decline reflected a downturn in inter-Korean ties that have soured since President Lee Myung-bak took office in February last year with a pledge to link the denuclearization of North Korea to the North-bound aid shipments.
Calling Lee "a traitor," Pyongyang has threatened armed conflicts along the border and imposed stricter regulations on South Koreans working at a joint industrial complex in the North Korean border town of Kaesong.
The complex is one of the last remaining symbols of inter-Korean reconciliation that grew from the 2000 summit between the Koreas, which still remain technically at war after the 1950-53 Korean War ended in a truce.A South Korean company has recently pulled out of the borderline factory park, while a South Korean worker has been detained by North Korea on charges of defaming its leadership since March.Further raising tension, North Korea fired a series of long- and short-range missiles this year and conducted its second nuclear test in late May.The provocative moves have prompted the U.N. Security Council to pass a resolution tightening sanctions on the isolated communist regime.
