South Korea's biggest export and import partners: two giants, one supplier
South Korea's biggest trading partners: its top export markets, the US and China, are nearly tied near 20% each, but its single biggest supplier is China alone — a quarter of all imports. Four partners are half the trade. Not advice.
AI-assisted, human-reviewed sourcing. Figures are pulled programmatically from the official sources listed at the end of this article and checked by an editor before publication.
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Korea’s trade has a shape as lopsided as its stock market: a handful of partners account for almost all of it. In June 2026, four countries were half of everything Korea exported, and four were half of everything it imported. But the two halves are not the same shape — and that asymmetry is the story.
Two destinations, one source
On the selling side, Korea leans on two giants of almost identical size: the United States at 19.6% of exports and China at 19.6% — nearly tied, and together 39.2% of the total. No third partner comes close; the next, Hong Kong, is under 9%.
On the buying side the picture tilts hard toward a single country. China alone supplied 24.9% of Korea’s imports — a bigger slice than any export destination takes. The United States, Korea’s co-leading customer, is only its second-largest supplier at 12.0%. So Korea sells to a balanced pair but buys, more than anything, from one place.
The tells hiding in the smaller bars
Two partners sit on opposite ends of a seesaw. Hong Kong is 8.9% of exports but just 0.3% of imports — the signature of an entrepôt, a waypoint where Korean goods are booked as they head onward, mostly into mainland China. Read that way, China’s real pull on Korean output is larger than its direct 19.6% suggests. Japan is the mirror image: 7.6% of imports but only 2.8% of exports — still a supplier of parts and materials, no longer a major customer.
Concentrated either way
Stack the partners up from the largest and both curves climb steeply. Four partners reach half of the total on each side; the top ten are 77% of exports and 72% of imports. The remaining 200-plus countries split what is left.
Look up any one partner
We keep a page for each of Korea’s biggest trading partners — surplus or deficit, rank, and share of exports and imports, country by country.
The full ranking — all 243 partners, with the balance
This article reads one month. If what you want is South Korea’s largest trading partners ranked in full, that is a separate page: 243 partner countries over twelve months, 2025-08 to 2026-07.
It answers a question this one does not. China is the largest partner at 21.5% of all trade — but the largest surplus comes from the United States. Those are two different rankings, and almost everyone publishes only the first. The top five together are 55.6% of the total; 161 partners run a surplus and 79 a deficit.
⚠ Different basis, stated so you can tell them apart: that page is built on customs figures over twelve months — goods crossing the border, services excluded — while the shares above come from the monthly statistics table. The two will not agree to the decimal, and neither is wrong.
What these numbers are, and are not
Everything here is a share — the fraction of the basket each partner holds — and deliberately so. The underlying table’s monthly dollar totals contain a scale break from March 2026, so the absolute figures are not trustworthy and are not used; the shares, by contrast, barely move across that break (China’s export share reads 18.9%, 19.1% and 19.6% in February, March and June), which is why they can be reported with confidence. This is a description of where Korea’s trade goes and comes from in one month, in relative terms — not investment advice.
Data & Verification Notes
- Data as of
- Sources
- Korea Customs Service (via KOSIS, Statistics Korea) — Exports and imports by partner country, table DT_1R11006_FRM101 (org 360), month 2026-06
- Cross-checks
- In 2026-06 the United States (19.6%) and China (19.6%) were nearly tied as Korea's top export destinations; together they were 39.2% of exports
- China alone was 24.9% of Korea's imports — a larger single share than any export destination; the US was second at 12.0%
- Four partners make up half of exports and half of imports; the top 10 are 77.1% of exports and 71.9% of imports
- Hong Kong was 8.9% of exports but 0.3% of imports; Japan was the reverse, 7.6% of imports but 2.8% of exports
- Partner shares are stable across a scale discontinuity in the monthly totals (China's export share was 18.9% / 19.1% / 19.6% in 2026-02 / 03 / 06), so the shares are used and the absolute dollar levels are not
- Excluded figures
- Absolute dollar totals are NOT reported: this table's monthly totals contain a scale discontinuity from 2026-03, so only shares are used — and shares hold steady across that break
- Hong Kong's export share is largely entrepôt trade (goods re-routed onward, mostly to mainland China), so China's effective demand for Korean goods is larger than its direct export share suggests
- This partner-country table has no product (HS-code) granularity; it is destination shares only
- This is not investment advice
The full dataset behind these figures — every listed company, every row — is available to license. SeoulMarkets data for licence →
Not investment advice. SMarkets publishes data journalism for general information only. Nothing here is investment advice, a recommendation, or an offer to buy or sell any security — any investment you make is at your own risk and responsibility. Figures are derived from official public data sources and may be revised by the issuing agency. Verify independently before acting.
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