In the early 1960s, Korea’s top export product was iron ore, but this eventually changed over the decades to apparel and then to semiconductors, data from the Korea International Trade Association showed Tuesday.
Over the same period, Korea’s biggest export market also changed from Japan to the U.S. and then to China, which bought 26 percent of all Korean exports last year.
When KITA was established in 1946, Korea had just four countries as trade partners, but this has since grown to 240, as of last year.
Since 2005, Korean exports have largely moved to Asian destinations, and in 2015, the U.S. was the only non-Asian country among the top eight export countries.
The data also shows that there is not much difference in the top export products over the last 10 years, raising questions about the need for innovation.
Since 2005, Korea’s strongest exports have remain unchanged. They are semiconductors, cars, wireless communication devices, petroleum products, ships and ship parts.