Korea’s import figures surpass total value of exports as the country has registered exports of $3.56 billion and imports of $3.65 billion last year, informed Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Energy.

List of export commodities includes caps, gloves and other articles of clothing.

Blaming Chinese supremacy in textile production, the ministry said that nation had never recorded loss in clothing trade since 1960s.

Korean products are replaced with Chinese goods because of latter’s cheap labour and technological advancement.

The ministry statistics showed Korea's textile and clothing imports from China rose 9 percent, amounting to $2.6 billion.

Italian imports jumped 11.4 percent to $267 million; Japanese and US imports amounted to $160 million and $98 million, respectively.

French imports jumped a whopping 48 percent to $74 million.

Korean textile exports have been declining since they peaked at $10 billion in 1989. In 2001, the exports dropped to $5.28 billion and to $4.34 billion in 2004.

In complete contrast, imports accounted for $1.59 billion in 2000 and rose to $3.32 billion in 2004.