SEOUL, Sept. 22 (Yonhap) -- Bilateral trade between North Korea and its ally Russia surged nearly 50 percent from a year earlier in the first half, a report said Saturday.

   According to the report from Seoul's state-run Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency (KOTRA), the amount of bilateral trade between the two countries in the January-June period came to US$38.8 million, up 49 percent from the same period last year.

   The report, however, noted such a large on-year increase was due to a large drop posted in the first half of 2011.

   "The volume of bilateral trade between North Korea and Russia is still insignificant by any standard," it said.

   The increase was also caused by a 68.3 percent rise in shipments of Russian goods to North Korea with fuel and steel products accounting for 29.9 percent and 28.7 percent of total shipments, respectively.

   North Korea's exports to Russia dropped 10.9 percent on-year to $5.4 million, according to the KOTRA report.

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