North Korea's trade volume last year rose 20 percent to just under three billion U-S dollars, the highest since 1991.

If inter-Korean trade is included, the total figure is over three and a half billion dollars.

The Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency on Tuesday said the North's exports reached one-point-two billion dollars last year, an increase of over 30 percent from 2003, and imports one-point-eight billion dollars, up about 14 percent.

The significant addition of export items such as nonferrous metals, mineral and textile products was apparently the main reason behind the rise.

The North's exports to China surged two hundred-47 percent last year.

The report said the North's trade with China rose last year mainly due to processing-on-commission industries moving from Japan to China and more energy imports from China.