Trade volume between the two Koreas reached an all-time high last year despite the May 24, 2010, punitive sanctions on North Korea following Pyongyang’s deadly sinking of the South’s Cheonan warship, data by Seoul’s Unification Ministry showed.

Inter-Korean trade surged 106.2 percent on-year to reach $2.34 billion. The rise was largely attributed to businesses at Gaeseong industrial park in the North’s border town.

The volume of exchanges is expected to grow as the Seoul government recently announced it would allow social and cultural interchanges with the North on the municipality and humanitarian levels this year.