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 duties.

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.

Japan and South Korea have until Aug. 1 to agree new trade terms with the U.S., or face 25% “reciprocal” tariffs. The two Asian countries share vulnerabilities that put them in President Trump’s crosshairs,