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.

President Donald Trump on Monday set a 25% tax on goods imported from Japan and South Korea, as well as new tariff rates on a dozen other nations that would go into effect on Aug. 1.

South Korea's automobile exports rose from a year earlier in June as a sharp rise in shipments to Europe and Asia more than offset a decline in shipments to the United States caused by US tariffs, data showed on Thursday.

South Korea handed President Donald Trump the first trade win of his administration. But as the August tariff deadline approaches it may not matter.

Trump must be careful about pressuring Seoul, or his administration could push Lee Jae-myung to move South Korea closer to China.

President Donald Trump issued separate letters to the president of South Korea and Japan's prime minister on Monday, saying the U.S. will start charging a 25% tariff on Aug. 1.

The U.S. will impose tariffs of 25% on Japan and South Korea beginning on Aug. 1, President Donald Trump announced on Monday in posts on Truth Social.

President Trump's newly announced 25% tariffs on goods from South Korea and Japan closely reflect tariffs for each nation that Trump had announced on April 2, before implementing a 90-day pause that was set to expire Wednesday.

American consumers of Korean cosmetics and skin-care products are bulk buying, as President Trump threatens 25 percent tariffs on imports.