"The sharp increase was attributed to the stable power supply by the DPRK (North Korea), which is helpful for the normal operation of Chinese factories," Xinhua news agency said.

The ability to export excess electricity comes despite the United States suspending shipments of heavy fuel oil to North Korea last October after it asserted that Pyongyang violated a 1994 agreement when it restarted a covert nuclear weapons program.

The fuel was seen as producing a large part of North Korea's energy needs.

China has been North Korea's major benefactor, supplying both coal and fuel for energy as well as millions of tons of food aid since economic hardship and famine struck the Stalinist nation following the collapse of the former Soviet Union in the early 1990s.

In an apparent sign that state-to-state barter trade was picking up, Xinhua also reported that China had seen its grain exports to North Korea grow to 66,255 tons in the first 10 months of the year, up 52 percent over the same period last year.

Pyongyang further imported 439 head of cattle on November 9 via Dandong, Xinhua said, adding that the beef would be used for meat, not for breeding purposes as in previous exports.

In the 1994 agreement, the US and its allies, namely Japan and South Korea, agreed to supply North Korea with two 1,000 kilowatt proliferation-resistant light water nuclear reactors in exchange for Pyongyang shutting down its controversial heavy water nuclear power plant at Yongbyon.

The North Koreans have been suspected of processing weapons grade plutonium from the spent fuel rods at the Yongbyon plant.

While the two nuclear reactors were being constructed, the Agreed Framework also stipulated that the US would supply North Korea with heavy fuel oil to fulfill its energy needs.

China is currently brokering six-party talks for mid-December that will also include South Korea, Japan and Russia, and which will seek to bring North Korea back to its 1994 position of giving up its nuclear-weapons ambition.

WAR.WIRE