SEOUL (Xinhua) -- South Korea’s trade balances with China, the United States and Japan worsened in the first three months of this year due to a slowing U.S. economy and Seoul’s high dependency on Japanese parts, a report by the Korea Customs Service said on Sunday.

South Korea’s trade surplus with China dropped 1.7 percent year-on-year to 4.1 billion U.S. dollars in the January-March period, said the report.
The country’s trade surplus with the United States was 1.74 billion U.S. dollars in the period, down 34.1 percent from the same period last year, it said.
South Korea’s shipments to the U.S. dropped 2.8 percent year-on-year to 11.07 billion U.S. dollars in the three-month period, while imports rose 6.6 percent to 9.34 billion U.S. dollars.
South Korea’s trade deficit with Japan was 8.37 billion U.S. dollars in the period, up 14.1 percent from the same period a year earlier.