Chief Presidential Secretary for Political Affairs Woo Sang-ho made the comments as South Korea continues dialogues with Washington to avoid reciprocal 25 percent tariffs ahead of the Aug. 1 deadline set by the Donald Trump administration.

It is true that the U.S. side is exerting very strong pressure in the tariff negotiations, particularly in the agriculture and livestock sectors. Our government is struggling to minimize concessions in order to protect local industries as much as possible, Woo said at a press conference.

Asked about a possible increase in defense spending and South Korea’s acquisition of U.S. weapons, Woo acknowledged that these issues are part of the negotiations, but declined to provide details on their progress.

Initially, South Korea had ruled out using further opening of its beef and rice markets as bargaining chips in the tariff talks, due to strong opposition from farmers’ groups.

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