Trade between South Korea and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) has seen a significant decline of more than 14 percent since Seoul imposed a ban on trade with Pyongyang for the deadly sinking of its warship Cheonan, according to Seoul's Ministry of Unification on Sunday.

The volume of inter-Korean trade amounted to 1.73 billion U.S. dollars in the period from June last year to May this year, down 14.41 percent from 2.02 billion dollars compared with the same June-May period a year earlier, the ministry said.

Seoul has severed all trade and investment with the DPRK after S.Korean warship "Cheonan" exploded and sank near the maritime border with the DPRK on 26 March 2010.

However, it decided not to shut down the Kaesong joint industrial complex, which accounts for near 70 percent of total trade between the two countries.

General trade and processing trade, both have been banned since last May, shrank 76.45 percent to 165.9 million dollars during the cited period. But the volume of trade via the Kaesong joint industrial complex reached 1.55 billion dollars, up 24.2 percent over the period year on year, the ministry said.

The Kaesong industrial complex, which has been widely viewed as one of the key symbols of economic cooperation between the two countries, is currently a base to 123 South Korean companies, employing about 46,000 DPRK workers.