South Korea's trade balance posted a surplus of 874 million U.S. dollars in January, keeping the surplus trend for 12 straight months, a government report showed Friday.

Exports surged 11.8 percent on-year to 46.09 billion dollars in January, and imports increased 3.9 percent to 45.21 billion dollars, according to the Ministry of Knowledge Economy.

Both exports and imports logged an on-year rebound after contracting in the prior month.