Trade between Korea and Japan has soured along with diplomatic relations over the past three years.
It's the weak yen that's most at fault... and experts say this trend will continue for the time being.
Kim Min-ji has the latest figures.
Korea's trade with Japan has been heading downhill.
According to the Korea International Trade Association,... bilateral trade between the two countries came to about 86 billion dollars last year,... down 9-point-2 percent from a year earlier.
Korea's exports to Japan slumped about seven percent to 32 billion dollars,... while imports fell more than 10 percent to almost 54 billion.
This marks the third straight year that the bilateral trade volume has dropped,... after peaking in 2011.
Preliminary data shows that trade between the two countries also fell almost 14 percent in the first two months of this year to about 10 billion dollars.
The decline has mainly been attributed to the weak yen.
"The falling value of the Japanese yen has made Korean products less competitive in terms of price in Japan,... and that's resulted in lower demand. Japan has also increased production overseas, so imports out of Japan have seen a decline."
Experts forecast the downward trend to continue, as Japan's monetary stimulus programs will keep the value of the yen down.
Kim Min-ji, Arirang News.
