N. Korea vows to expand trade

SEOUL, Sept. 21 (Yonhap) -- North Korea said Monday it hopes to expand trade with
the international community as a trade fair opened in its capital with businesses
from 15 countries.
"The DPRK would as ever develop on a wider scale the economic and commercial
dealings with all countries which are friendly towards it on the principles of
complete equality and reciprocity," Kim Mun-jong, director of the Korean
International Exhibition Corporation, a North Korean organization hosting the
trade fair, said at an opening speech. His remarks were carried by the North's
Korean Central News Agency. DPRK stands for the Democratic People's Republic of
Korea, the country's official name.
The Pyongyang Autumn International Trade Fair is a biannual event where the
country seeks to draw foreign investment and boost technology exchanges. The
four-day fair, the fifth of its kind, continues until Thursday at the
Three-Revolution Exhibition, presenting machine tools, electric and electronic
equipment, vehicles, petro-chemical products, medicaments, articles of daily use
and foodstuffs, the report said.
Participating businesses come from China, the Netherlands, Germany, Sweden,
Britain, Australia, Austria, Italy, Indonesia, Vietnam, France, Finland, Poland
and Taiwan, as well as the host, the report said.
"The fair would serve as an important occasion in developing the economic
cooperation and exchange among various countries and regions," O Ryong-chol,
vice-minister of foreign trade, said in a congratulatory speech at the opening
ceremony that also drew foreign diplomatic envoys.
The North began its fall trade fair in 2005 and a spring fair in 1998 with goals
of promoting its homegrown goods and acquiring advanced technology from foreign
countries. This year's spring fair was held in May.
North Korean trade is heavily dependent on China -- up to 73 percent last year --
as the country faces a string of international sanctions that tightened after its
nuclear test in May. According to data from the South's Korea Trade-Investment
Promotion Agency in Seoul, the North's exports in 2008 were worth US$1.13
billion, and its imports were worth $2.69 billion. Of the country's exports, 41
percent came from selling mineral resources.
hkim@yna.co.kr
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