The trade volume between North Korea and China dwindled in 2009 for the first time in seven years.

The two countries saw a four-percent drop in bilateral trade last year.

Quoting China’s customs statistics, Japan’s Nihon Keizai Shimbun said the annual trade volume between North Korea and China stood at nearly two-point-seven billion U.S. dollars last year.

However, the two countries’ trade plunged 20-point-eight percent year-on-year in December last year on the heels of North Korea’s currency revaluation.

Inter-Korean trade also dropped eight-point-five percent to nearly one-point-seven billion dollars.

The Japanese newspaper said that the decrease in overall trade would aggravate the economic difficulties facing the communist country.