Anchor: South Korea has posted the largest trade surplus in culture and leisure services in a year. The rise is being attributed to the Hallyu or Korean Wave phenomenon. This comes amid a recovery in South Korea-China relations as Beijing eases its ban on Korean culture. 
Our Kim Soyon has more. 

Report: According to Bank of Korea data, the trade balance in the culture and leisure services posted a surplus of 34 million dollars in April. It's the highest surplus in exactly a year.

The trade account on culture and leisure services refers to the difference between what was earned and spent overseas such as in cinema or the production of TV shows.

Most of the surplus this year is connected to sales of cultural contents, and is regarded as a sign of recovery in the Korean Wave boom, which suffered a blow during China's retaliation against South Korea's deployment of a U.S. THAAD missile defense system.

South Korea mostly ran deficits in the culture and leisure account prior to 2013. But it shifted to a surplus starting in 2014 thanks to the Korean Wave.

Then Beijing issued a ban on Korean cultural contents in protest of Seoul's decision to deploy the THAAD missile shield in July 2016.

Many Korean cultural events in China were abruptly canceled. At its worst, the trade balance posted a two-point-four million dollar deficit last October.

After Seoul and Beijing agreed to improve relations late last year, China again allowed group tours to Korea and bilateral ties began to warm up.

This year, a good number of Korean films and TV dramas are targeting to air in China, raising prospects of a wider trade surplus in the coming months. 
Kim Soyon, KBS World Radio News.