China shipped a total of 207-thousand tons of corn, rice and flour to North Korea in 2006, down 53 percent from the previous year.

According to Chinese customs figures released Thursday, the country's export of corn to its poverty-stricken ally dropped a whopping 85-point-three percent from 2005.

Beijing’s oil exports to Pyongyang increased two-tenths of a percent to some 520-thousand tons last year.

It is noteworthy that Chinese oil shipments to North Korea grew last year when its overall oil exports fell 21-point-four percent to six-point-three million tons.

In contrast, China’s oil exports to Japan, South Korea and Indonesia declined.