Kia Motors Corp., South Korea's No. 2 automaker, said Friday its net earnings for the first quarter jumped 11.8 percent on-year to 876.3 billion won (US$843.9 million), mainly due to the rise in the average unit price of cars sold abroad. Operating profit rose 4.5 percent to 735.6 billion won in the same period, with sales numbers rising to 11.92 trillion won, a 7.6 percent increase compared with the year before, the company said in a regulatory filing.