Japanese automakers suffered sharp drops in their operating profit in South Korea over the past year amid a prolonged trade dispute between the two nations.

According to the audit report of Honda Motor on Sunday, the automaker witnessed a sharp decline in its operating income to one-point-98 billion won between April 2019 and March 2020 – a representation of one tenth of the comparable figure for the previous year.

Its sales also plunged 23 percent to 363 billion won over the cited period.

Honda Korea sold about 13-hundred vehicles in the first five months of the year, down 73 percent on-year.

Nissan Motor decided to pull out from South Korea 16 years after entering the Korean market in 2004. Nissan and its premium brand Infiniti posted 38 percent and 71 percent drops in sales, respectively in the January-May period.