S Korea's farm, food imports from U.S. surge over past 5 years

South Korea's imports of food and agricultural products from the United States surged over the past five years, data showed Friday. According to data sent by the Ministry of Food, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries to Rep. Park Joo-sun of the opposition Democratic Party, South Korea imported 5.96 billion U.S. dollars in food and farm goods from the U.S. in 2010, more than double from 2.35 billion dollars tallied in 2005. The last year's imports from the U.S. accounted for 23.1 percent of the total agricultural products imported from overseas, up from 16.5 percent five years earlier. The surging imports from the U.S. sent the nation's deficit of farm goods with the U.S. to 5.44 billion dollars in 2010, nearly triple from 1.98 billion dollars of deficit registered in 2005.