Program trading on South Korea's main bourse was briefly suspended on Thursday after futures prices slipped by more than five percent.

The Korea Exchange said a "sidecar" was activated for five minutes from 11:50 a.m. to temporarily suspend trading of shares due to sharp drops in the futures prices.  

The sidecar system is activated to halt trading for five minutes to restrain rapid market fluctuation when KOSPI 200 index futures slip by more than five percent.