New data finds that last year marked the first time for inter-Korean trade to amount to zero since Seoul and Pyongyang began trading in 1989. 

The unification ministry revealed the assessment in its 2024 white paper on unification released on Friday. 

The ministry also estimated that South Korea’s humanitarian aid to the North stood at 900 million won or around 650-thousand dollars last year, making it the smallest amount since related statistics began to be compiled in 1995. 

Also according to the paper, there was no record of people moving to and from the two Koreas in 2023.

Up until 2020, South Koreans had visited the North while the last time North Koreans visited the South was in 2018.