South Korea first allowed automobile imports late last year, she said.

There was also an unpredictable bulge in Japanese automobile imports last fall, to fill 1987 import quotas before year-end.

For example, automobile imports from Japan rose by 33 percent over the September figure and cars from other nations had a 41 percent jump.

The shuttle trade is almost entirely a cash business, which makes it even harder to regulate than automobile imports or oil exports.

For years, Koreans have barred Japanese automobile imports while building careful knockoffs of Japan's leading models.

Although we complain about automobile imports, the importation of oil costs us twice as much and is the biggest item in our negative balance of trade.

For example, automobile imports to Japan are subjected to a battery of inspections on arrival at the docks, which add thousands of dollars to their price.

Much of the improvement reflected weakness in the American automobile market, which led to a decline in automobile imports from Japan.

In 1988, automobile imports totaled 150,629 units, of which 127,309 were European, mostly West German.

This improvement has helped quadruple automobile imports at Quonset Point.