	south korea to keep  surplus years south korean  minister rha woong bae said his nation would maintain a trading surplus for three to five years as a way to cut its foreign debt he said in an interview with reuter that after a few years it was likely south korea would drop barriers to foreign goods and move toward a more balanced  position he said the present  surplus was vital if his nation was to reduce its billion dlr foreign debt rha said that was the first year south korea had a  surplus billion dlrs against a deficit of mln dlrs rha made his remarks at the end of a two week  mission here during which a team he led agreed to buy u s products valued at billion dlrs about mln dlrs of the purchases here were in goods of the type south korea normally bought from japan rha leaves today for ottawa for  talks with canadian officials and businessmen asked if south korea would retaliate against u s goods if congress closed u s markets to its products he said at this moment we have no thought of retaliation south korea is a major exporter to the u s of textiles and apparel and electronic goods such as television sets video cassette records and personal computers its purchases from the united states include electronic testing equipment grains and cotton reuter 
