hankyoreh

North Korea's crude oil imports in 2006 amounted to merely 3.8 million barrels, a steep fall from about 18 million barrels in the early 1990s, a South Korean government report disclosed on Sunday said, indicating the difficulties faced by the communist state in reviving its economy amid a prolonged nuclear stalemate.

According to the National Statistics Office's report, the 3.8 million barrel import marked the smallest amount of oil imported by the impoverished communist state in a five-year span ending in 2006.

Pyongyang has had its horns locked with Washington over its nuclear weapons programs, with its international reputation severely damaged by U.S. claims that it engaged in massive money-laundering and other illicit activities.

The tension reached its peak when the North detonated its first nuclear device in late 2006. The North has since agreed to dismantle its nuclear weapons programs under an aid-for-denuclearization accord with five other nations -- South Korea, the U.S., Japan, Russia and China, but its pledge has yet to be fully carried out. The six-party denuclearization deal, signed last year, calls for providing the North with 1 million tons of fuel oil or its equivalent in aid.

North Korea imported as many as 18 million barrels of crude oil in 1990, nearly five times its imports in 2006. Crude imports hit their lowest mark when the North brought in 2.3 million barrels in 1999, signaling its deteriorating economic conditions.

North Korea's 2006 oil imports accounted for only 0.43 percent of South Korea's imports in the same year.


SEOUL, Jan. 13 (Yonhap)