South Korea's imports of diesel vehicles set a new record in 2015, data showed Sunday, despite German carmaker Volkswagen AG's fabrication of the emissions data of its diesel models.

The country's combined imports of diesel cars came to $6.29 million in 2015, marking an all-time high level by soaring 28 percent on-year.

South Korea's exports of diesel models, however, plunged 15.7 percent over the cited period to $4.8 billion.

Accordingly, South Korea posted a trade deficit of $1.4 billion in the diesel automobiles segment for the first time in 2015.

In September, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced that Volkswagen had used stealthy software to fabricate emissions results of some of its diesel models in order to pass strict environment standards in the U.S.

The move was initially seen as a major drag on the global sales of diesel automobiles by major manufacturers.

Industry watchers said the increase came as local consumers took advantage of discounts and other promotions made by foreign brands to beef up the sales of diesel models after the outbreak of the Volkswagen scandal. (Yonhap)