Data from the Korea International Trade Association show that South Korea became China's second largest trade partner after the U.S. in the fourth quarter of 2015, according to a Yonhap report on Sunday.

The data show that South Korea's trade with China amounted to 75.6 billion dollars from October to December.

According to Yonhap, the implementation of the China-South Korea FTA in December is expected to further expand the future bilateral trade scale and the South Korea's trade volume with China is likely to exceed China's trade volume with Japan.

Apart from the implementation of the free trade agreement, there are other reasons behind the rise in the bilateral trade volume in the period, such as the local economic cooperation between China and South Korea and China’s closer industry connections with South Korea than with Japan, according to Zhang Jianping, director of Office of International Cooperation of the National Development and Reform Commission. 

Yonhap attributes South Korea’s rise to its exporters' relatively good performance.

The data of the General Administration of Customs show that the total volume of China's import and export trade with Japan amounted to about 279 billion dollars, down 10 percent from the last year; the total volume of China's import and export trade with South Korea reached nearly 276 billion dollars, slipping 5 percent year on year.