Looking at South Korea’s trade figures reported on Jan. 1, one can’t help but be reminded of Lewis Carroll’s brilliant “Through The Looking-Glass,” where the Red Queen says to Alice, “It takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place. If you want to get somewhere else, you must run at least twice as fast!”

The figures showed two new records, both good and bad, which ultimately offset one another. Let’s start with the positive.

Last year, the total valueof South Korean exports was a record $683.9 billion. That’s 6.1% more than the previous year’s