South Korea witnessed its 27th consecutive month of trade surplus in April when exports rose 9 percent from a year earlier with imports growing 5 percent, the government said Thursday. Outbound shipments stood at 50.31 billion U.S. dollars in April, while imports came to 45.85 billion dollars, leaving a surplus of 4.46 billion dollars, compared with 2.45 billion dollars a year earlier, according to the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy.