SEOUL: South Korea’s e-commerce exports posted a double-digit increase in the second quarter thanks to demand in China for South Korean cosmetics and clothing, a government report showed Wednesday. Sales in cyberspace to foreign countries reached 497.4 billion won (446 million U.S. dollars) in the April-June period, up 83 percent from the same period of last year, according to Statistics Korea.
Online purchase from overseas grew 5 percent from a year earlier to 411.8 billion won in the second quarter, sending the surplus to 85.6 billion won in the cited period. The statistical agency attributed the second-quarter surge in e-commerce exports to strong demand for South Korean cosmetics and clothing coming from a popularity of the K-drama “Descendants from the Sun.”
E-commerce exports to China, South Korea’s largest trading partner, amounted to 373.2 billion won in the second quarter, accounting for 75 percent of the total. It was followed by the United State with 7 percent, Japan with 6.4 percent and Southeast Asian nations with 3.9 percent.
The upward trend, however, is not expected to continue in the second half of this year as the decision between Seoul and Washington to deploy Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) in South Korean soil damages Beijing-Seoul relations and may result in weak demand for South Korean products.
Many experts predict a fall in the number of Chinese tourists visiting South Korea as the THAAD deployment seriously damages security interests of China and Russia and breaks strategic balance in the region. Trade between China and South Korea, which heavily depends on the world’s second-largest economy for exports, is expected to weaken in accordance with the worsening of the bilateral ties.
