Data released on January 26 by the RoK’s Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy (MOTIE) and the Korea International Trade Association (KITA) show that the RoK’s exports to Vietnam reached US$62.8 billion in 2025, up 7.6% year on year. Imports from Vietnam also rose 11.7% to US$31.8 billion.

As a result, two-way trade between the two countries increased from US$86.8 billion to US$94.5 billion, equivalent to growth of 9%. This scale represents around 35% of the RoK’s trade with China, its largest trading partner at US$272.7 billion, and 48% of its trade with the US, which stood at US$196.2 billion.

In terms of export growth, Vietnam ranked second among the RoK’s major markets, trailing only Taiwan (China), where shipments surged amid strong demand for artificial intelligence chips.

The RoK also recorded a trade surplus of US$31 billion with Vietnam in 2025, up US$1.1 billion from US$29.9 billion a year earlier. This made Vietnam the RoK’s second-largest source of trade surplus, after the US, where the surplus hit US$49.5 billion.

Vietnam had previously topped the list of countries generating the largest trade surplus for the RoK in 2022 and has maintained the second position over the past three years. The main driver behind this trend has been the strong performance of the semiconductor sector. Fueled by the global expansion of artificial intelligence and data centres, semiconductors-the RoK’s leading export item, posted a record US$173.4 billion in export revenue.

In the Vietnamese market, semiconductors also ranked as the RoK’s largest export category, with shipments reaching US$24.7 billion in 2025, marking an increase of 36.7% from the previous year.

Since the establishment of diplomatic relations in 1992, trade between the RoK and Vietnam has expanded nearly 190-fold from an initial level of US$500 million. The product mix has gradually shifted from labour-intensive goods such as garments to higher value-added items, including semiconductors and wireless communications equipment.

The signing of the Vietnam-Korea Free Trade Agreement (VKFTA) in 2014 further accelerated trade growth, tripling bilateral turnover and elevating Vietnam from the RoK’s eighth-largest trading partner to its third-largest at present.

Bilateral trade is characterised by a complementary structure, with RoK firms investing in Vietnam, supplying intermediate goods to production facilities there, and Vietnam exporting finished products back to the RoK. Samsung Electronics is a prime example, producing more than 50% of its global smartphone output in Vietnam. The group is not only the country’s largest foreign direct investor, accounting for about 20% of Vietnam’s total exports, but has also continued to expand its footprint, notably through the opening of a large-scale research and development centre in Hanoi in 2022.

Alongside industrial products, exports of beauty-related items and food products from the RoK have also recorded solid growth, supported by the continued influence of the Hallyu wave.

Conversely, the RoK remains a key partner in Vietnam’s economy. Data from Vietnam Customs indicate that over the past 11 months of 2025, the RoK was Vietnam’s second-largest import market and its fourth-largest export destination.

A MOTIE representative said that amid increasing uncertainties in global trade, Vietnam has become a core market within ASEAN for the RoK’s efforts to diversify export destinations and reduce reliance on the United States and China. The RoK government, the official added, will continue to support the expansion of bilateral trade on a mutually beneficial basis, covering semiconductors as well as increasingly popular consumer goods.

Source: VOV