South Korea had the largest trade surplus with Hong Kong last year, data from the Korea Customs Service showed.

Its trade deficit with Japan remained the largest, although the size was the lowest in 16 years due to Tokyo’s restrictions on exports of high-tech materials and the consequent boycott of Japanese products.

While China was the country with Korea’s largest trade surplus for 10 years, Hong Kong topped the list last year.

Poland joined the list of 10 countries with which Korea saw a trade surplus for the first time.

By exports alone, China, Vietnam, Hong Kong and Japan remained Korea’s largest destination for shipments. Malaysia also joined the list of top 10 export destinations for the first time.

(khnews@heraldcorp.com)