The country’s new president, in office for a little over a month, had just dispatched his senior deputies to Washington to try to work out a trade deal.

The U.S.’s closest security allies in Asia, along with six Southeast Asian countries, have been given another three weeks to negotiate trade deals — or face higher tariffs.

South Korea said it planned to intensify trade talks with the United States and considered U.S. President Donald Trump's plan for a 25% tariff from August 1 as effectively extending a grace period on implementing the levies.