South Korea's annual exports have surpassed the 600-billion-dollar mark for the first time.

The Trade Ministry said that the country's cumulative exports for this year exceeded 600 billion U.S. dollars as of Friday morning.

South Korea is only the seventh country in the world to reach the export threshold.

The news comes 70 years after the country began exporting goods in 1948 and seven years after its outbound shipments reached 500 billion dollars in 2011.

The ministry said exports increased on average 16-point-one percent every year between 1948 and 2017, expanding some 30-thousand times during the period.

Outbound shipments from South Korea now take up three-point-four percent of the world's total exports, placing the country sixth in the world rankings.

The ministry said shipments of semiconductors, general machinery and petrochemicals contributed to this year's expansion of exports, adding it will mobilize capacity to see exports surpass 600 billion dollars for the second straight year next year.