The U.S. is the source of 98 percent of Korea's trade deficit in technology because firms there hold the rights for IT technologies like CDMA and liquid crystal displays which are crucial in Korean flagship exports. Korea posted a technology trade deficit for the eighth year running at US$3.14 billion last year.

The technology balance of payments shows the relation between a country's payment of royalties for foreign patented technologies and its receipt of them.

According to a report released by the Ministry of Education Science and Technology on Thursday, Korea's own technologies were mainly exported to China (30.6%) and the U.S. (13.1%), but more than 60 percent of Korea's technological imports came from the U.S., with the result that the biggest technology trade deficit was with the U.S. at $3.1 billion.

The second largest deficit was with Japan ($540 million) and the third largest with the U.K. ($230 million). The biggest surplus came with China ($740 million), followed by Slovakia ($260 million) and Hungary ($110 million).