The number of Chinese-Koreans leaving Korea has surged while the amount money sent to China by ethnic Koreans has decreased.

China's Xinhua News Agency said out of 18-thousand people who returned to the city of Yanbian from last September to January of this year, 60 percent were laborers coming back from South Korea.

The news agency said the reason for the return was because the laborers were unable to make a large sum of money due to the decreased value of the Korean won.

The agency added that the inflow of foreign currency in the Yanbian region decreased greatly as laborers working overseas wired in 750 million dollars in 2008, which was a decrease of 300 million dollars from the year before.