SEOUL, April 5 (UPI) -- Inter-Korean trade posted a meager 6.7 percent increase in the first quarter, Seoul's Unification Ministry said Thursday.
Cross-border trade between the two Koreas reached $278.11 million during the first three months of this year, up 6.7 percent from 2006.
The quarterly gain is lower than usual because the South halted economic aid to the North in the aftermath of the nuclear standoff, ministry officials said. Last year inter-Korean trade amounted to about $1.3 billion, up 28 percent from 2005.
But commercial trade between the two neighbors rose 40 percent to $187.08 million in the first quarter on the back of the South's purchase of zinc bullion, sand and fishery items from the North, according to the ministry.
The South is pushing for economic cooperation with the communist North as part of efforts to ease military tensions on the divided peninsula.
