(Updates with official comments, details)
SEOUL, July 1 (Reuters) - South Korea posted its biggest trade surplus for three-and-a-half years in June, underpinned by robust shipments of automobiles and mobile phone sets, the Commerce Ministry said on Tuesday.
The bounce in the surplus was helped by slower growth in imports, which were hit by depressed domestic demand and lower crude oil prices after the end of the U.S.-led war in Iraq.
South Korea recorded a provisional trade surplus of $2.35 billion in June, the biggest surplus since December, 1999, when the surplus was $2.38 billion, the ministry said.
Ministry officials said exports in June last year were hit by the 2002 World Cup soccer finals, co-hosted by South Korea and Japan, and labour unrest that crippled production at the country's largest carmaker Hyundai Motor Co .
"Exports were good in June relative to last June because the World Cup games and labour disputes hurt exports a year ago," said Lee Seung-hoon, director general of the ministry's export and import division.
"Vehicles and wireless telecom devices led June export growth, while import growth slowed because of slumping domestic demand," he added.
The June surplus was up from a revised $1.22 billion surplus in May and a $960 million surplus in June, 2002, it said.
Exports rose 22.3 percent year-on-year to $15.77 billion in June, while imports were up 12.5 percent to $13.42 billion, the ministry said.