No inter-Korean trade recorded for two consecutive years since 2023: White paper

Two soldiers stand in Panmunjeom on the southern side with their backs turned, facing toward North Korea, Nov. 29, 2022. Joint Press Corps

Inter-Korean trade remained at “zero” for the second consecutive year, with no personnel exchanges, underscoring the ongoing freeze in relations between the two Koreas, according to a white paper released Friday by the Ministry of Unification.

The annual publication outlines the South Korean government's unification policies and North Korea policies over the past year, and provides details on the current state of inter-Korean relations.

According to the white paper's trade statistics, inter-Korean trade has stayed at zero since 2023 — a stark contrast to 2015, when trade volume peaked at approximately 3.8 trillion won ($2.714 billion) during the height of operations at the Kaesong Industrial Complex.

Inter-Korean trade originally began in July 1989 under the Roh Tae-woo administration.

The report also revealed that there have been no personnel exchanges between the two Koreas in the four consecutive years since 2021.

During this period, only one family reunion took place — a private meeting in which a Korean citizen living abroad visited North Korea to reunite with family and later reported it to the authorities. The last government-facilitated reunion occurred in 2018.

Humanitarian aid to North Korea, which began in 1995, was also entirely suspended last year for the first time in 19 years. There was no assistance from either the government or the private sector.

Inter-Korean communication channels also remain cut off after North Korea unilaterally severed them on April 7, 2023, and they have not yet been restored.

The white paper notes that the South Korean government, under former President Yoon Suk Yeol’s August 15 Unification Doctrine, proposed a dialogue platform and pushed for the normalization of communication channels, but North Korea has not responded to such gestures.

Reflecting the hardline stance toward North Korea under the Yoon administration, the white paper does not include the word “dialogue” even in chapter titles or section headings.

Instead, the paper reported the unification ministry's various efforts to raise awareness of North Korean human rights issues. In collaboration with 19 civil society organizations, the ministry carried out projects worth a total of 1.8 billion won related to North Korean human rights.

The white paper is distributed to government agencies, private organizations, research institutions, public libraries, media outlets and experts in related fields. It will also be available to the public on the Ministry of Unification’s website in both eBook and PDF formats.