This file photo shows a cosmetics store in Seoul. (Yonhap) South Korea's trade surplus in cosmetic products exceeded $10 billion for the first time last year, government data showed Friday, marking a significant milestone for the country's K-beauty industry.The trade surplus in cosmetics rose 13.5 percent from a year earlier to reach $10.1 billion in 2025, the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety said in a press release.South Korea first posted a cosmetics trade surplus in 2012, at $90 million, and the figure has grown rapidly ever since, rising from $6.6 billion in 2022 to $7.1 billion in 2023 and $8.9 billion in 2024.Last year's cosmetics trade surplus accounted for 12.9 percent of the country's overall trade surplus of $78 billion."South Korea's overall trade surplus reached its highest level since 2017, with cosmetics accounting for more than 10 percent of the total and emerging as one of the country's leading surplus-generating industries," a ministry official said.The ministry added that the record performance was driven by the growing global popularity of Korean cultural content, including K-pop and K-dramas. (Yonhap)