The number of automobile recalls in South Korea shrank 27.2 percent in 2014 from a year earlier, a car safety agency said Tuesday, on the back of a decline for local carmakers.

A total of 755,501 vehicles registered here were recalled for safety reasons last year, down from 1.04 million units in 2013, according to the data compiled by the Korea Transportation Safety Authority. The number of models affected, however, jumped 80.5 percent on-year to 352 from the previous 195.

There were fewer recalls for local automakers, bringing down the overall numbers. Last year, local car manufacturers recalled 635,273 vehicles, down 35.3 percent from the year before, the data showed. The number of models affected by the recalls also went down by more than one-fourth from the previous figure over the cited period.

By brand, Ssangyong Motor Co. sent out recall notices for 110,000 of its cars, while the number for Renault Samsung Motors Co. was 24,103 units, according to the data.

In contrast, recalls for overseas brands more than doubled in the same period. A combined 120,228 units of registered imported cars were brought back for repairs last year, up from the 55,853 vehicles in 2013, the data showed.

The increase was in part due to the growing number of imported cars in the country. In 2014, 179,239 foreign brand cars were registered, up 14.5 percent from the 156,497 units registered a year earlier, according to the Korea Automobile Importers and Distributors Association. (Yonhap)