South Korea's exports jumped 53 percent year-on-year to a record $87.8 billion in May, according to the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, marking the third consecutive month outbound shipments have exceeded the $80 billion threshold. The surge was driven largely by a semiconductor supercycle fuelled by global investment in artificial intelligence infrastructure, with chip exports alone soaring 169 percent to an all-time monthly high of $37.2 billion — accounting for more than 42 percent of total exports. The strong performance also pushed South Korea's cumulative trade surplus for the first five months of 2025 to $101.9 billion, already surpassing the country's previous full-year record of $95.2 billion set in 2017.