Anchor: U.S. President Donald Trump's visit to South Korea is just a day away, but whether that trip will bring an end to months of trade negotiations between Seoul and Washington remains up in the air. U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Monday that while the two sides are close to reaching an agreement on the specifics of South Korea's investment pledge of 350 billion U.S. dollars, the complexity of the situation means a signed agreement may not be ready this week.
Kim Bum-soo has more.

Report: U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent says it is unlikely Seoul and Washington will be able to wrap up their tariff negotiations during U.S. President Donald Trump's visit to South Korea later this week. 

Trump and his aides addressed the matter while traveling from Malaysia to Japan aboard Air Force One on Monday.

[Sound bite: U.S. President Donald Trump and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent]
(Reporter: "Sir, has there been a snag in terms of the South Korea trade talks? How is that going?)
Trump: "No, I don't think so. Scott."
Bessent: "No, no. There's just a lot of details to work out. Very complicated deal. And I think we're very close."
(Reporter: "Do you expect to finalize that on Wednesday, or will it maybe not quite be done?")
Bessent: "I think not quite, but I think the overall framework is done. We're just getting... the crossing the ‘t’s,’ dotting the ‘i’s.'"

The two sides reached a preliminary deal in July under which the United States agreed to reduce its reciprocal tariffs on South Korea to 15 percent from 25 percent in exchange for the Asian ally's investment pledge of 350 billion U.S. dollars. But Seoul and Washington have been struggling to iron out the terms of the investment package.

With the tariff deal delayed ahead of Wednesday's Seoul-Washington summit, Trump highlighted U.S.–Korea shipbuilding cooperation as a key area of industrial partnership.

[Sound bite: US President Donald Trump]
"We're very much involved in getting the shipbuilding again, which really we should have never lost. Years ago, they lost that. Years, many, many decades ago, we were number one. We'd be either number one or right up around now. China's making a lot of ships... "

In the aftermath of last month's immigration raid of a Hyundai construction site in Georgia, Trump noted that foreign companies investing in the U.S. should be able to bring their own experts and that his administration is working on a new visa plan with South Korea.
Kim Bum-soo, KBS World Radio News.