N Korea economy shrinks for second year

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SEOUL, June 18 (AFP): North Korea's economy shrank 2.3 per cent in 2007 from a year earlier, its second straight year of contraction as devastating floods hit harvests, the South Korean central bank said today.

The Bank of Korea estimated that the communist state's gross domestic product shrank more than twice as much as the 1.1 per cent contraction in 2006.

The 2006 contraction was the first in eight years and was due mainly to worsening international relations following its first nuclear test and severe flooding.