Wine has surpassed spirits in Korea's imported liquor market for the first time ever.
The Korea International Trade Association says wine imports rose five-point-five-percent from the year before to 94-point-four million U.S. dollars in the first half of the year.
Imports of hard liquor... like whiskey, vodka and gin,... came in at 91-point-seven million dollars.
Spirits once took up two-thirds of all alcohol imports, but wine now has the highest share at nearly 25 percent, while spirits have fallen to just over 24 percent.
Wine imports have been on the rise for the past six years, with more Koreans interested in health and light drinking.
There has also been an increasing domestic demand for a wider variety of wine from vineyards in Chile, the United States and Australia.