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SEOUL : North Korea has found Chinese partners to make up for losses in trade with South Korean firms, weakening the impact of Seoul's measures to punish the communist country, a report said Sunday.
South Korea banned most cross-border trade in May after a multinational investigation concluded that a North Korean torpedo sank one of Seoul's warships with the loss of 46 lives.
Before the ban was announced, the North had produced goods after receiving raw materials from more than 500 South Korean firms, Yonhap news agency said.
"After the South Korean companies became unable to send the raw materials, North Korean factories have been manufacturing products ordered by China," a source familiar with North Korean affairs told Yonhap.
Seoul partially lifted the ban to allow South Korean firms to proceed on deals which had been signed earlier.
"North Koreans said they already signed contracts with Chinese firms and told us they will manufacture the orders from the Chinese side first," the source was quoted as saying.
Most of the goods made on consignment trade with China are for export to Europe, Yonhap said.
The ban would cost the impoverished North hundreds of millions of dollars a year, a state think-tank here said last month.
Washington announced further sanctions last month to stop the North from selling nuclear weapons or related material as well as blocking money laundering and other illicit activities.
- AFP /ls
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