This file photo, taken May 10, 2023, shows a road in Paju, just north of Seoul, that leads to the now-shuttered joint industrial complex in North Korea’s border city of Kaesong. (Image courtesy of Yonhap)
SEOUL, May 31 (Korea Bizwire) — South and North Korea had no cross-border trade last year and Seoul’s humanitarian aid to Pyongyang hit an all-time low amid frozen inter-Korean ties, the unification ministry said Friday.
It marked the first time that the two Koreas logged no cross-border trade since 1989, when they began trading, according to the 2024 Unification White Paper issued by the ministry.
The cumulative value of inter-Korean transactions reached US$24.86 billion between 1989 and 2022.
South Korea’s nutrition aid for North Korean children and other humanitarian assistance to North Korea amounted to 900 million won ($653,000) last year, down from 2.6 billion won the previous year. Of the amount, civic groups provided aid worth 700 million won.
The 2023 figure marked the smallest amount since 1995, when the ministry began compiling related data.
The ministry also said the two Koreas saw no exchange of personnel for the third straight year in 2023.
(Yonhap)
