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.

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 reciprocal tariffs.

After the “liberation day” onslaught, formal notification revives questions about the stability of long-standing trade partnerships in the era of economic nationalism.