Trading on South Korea's main and secondary markets was suspended for 20 minutes on Thursday after stock prices plunged over eight percent during midday trading. 

The Korea Exchange, the country's stock market operator, said that a circuit breaker was activated on the main KOSPI and secondary KOSDAQ as of 12:05 p.m. to temporarily suspend trading.  

A circuit breaker is triggered when the index plunges more than eight percent from the previous close and the downward trend lasts for a minute.

Earlier in the morning, a sidecar was activated on the KOSPI market to suspend trading for five minutes after future prices slipped by more than five percent.