South Korea's information technology (IT) trade surplus hit a record high of 6.88 billion U.S. dollars in May on the back of semiconductor and display panel demand increase, a government report said Monday.

According to the report by the Ministry of Knowledge Economy, South Korea's IT exports posted 12.81 billion U.S. dollars in May, rising 32.8 percent year on year, while imports climbed 20.8 percent to 5.93 billion U.S. dollars.

The nation's exports hovered above the 10 billion-U.S. dollar mark for the 12th consecutive month, the report said, adding that the May surplus exceeded the previous record of 6.71 billion U.S. dollars.

The increase in semiconductor exports led the overall gain as the figure jumped 82.9 percent from a year ago to mark 4.39 billion U.S. dollars.

Display panel exports also added to the IT surplus, expanding 37.6 percent year on year to 2.91 billion U.S. dollars for the period, according to the report.

During the first five months of 2010, the trade balance in the IT sector totaled to 31.1 billion U.S. dollars, with exports soaring 41.1 percent to 59.9 billion U.S. dollars and imports going up 26.9 percent to 28.8 billion U.S. dollars.