A study shows that North Korea’s trade with foreign countries dropped last year for the first time in eleven years.

The Korea Development Institute believes North Korea’s overseas trade dwindled at least five percent last year due to decreases in trade with South Korea and China.

As a basis for its presumption, the institute noted China’s customs statistics that show the trade volume between China and North Korea shrank four percent from 2008 to nearly two-point-seven billion dollars last year.

The institute said inter-Korean trade also decreased eight-point-four percent last year from 2008.

North Korea’s imports from South Korea increased two-tenths of a percent to 930 million dollars, while its cross-border exports dropped 16 percent to 740 million dollars.

North Korea’s trade volume had been growing more than ten percent each year from some two-point-four billion dollars in 2000 to more than five-point-six billion dollars in 2008.