(RTTNews) - South Korean Foreign Minister Yu Myung-hwan said Friday his country would not renegotiate a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) it signed with the United States.

The statement comes a day after South Korean President Lee Myung-bak said at a joint press conference with visiting US President Barack Obama that Seoul was willing to "talk again" about cars, the main sticking point to the deal coming into force.

Clarifying Lee's remarks in the National Assembly, Yu said the President was not referring to a renegotiation but was taking an offensive stance on the United States for raising issues with the FTA's auto provisions.

He stressed that re-negotiations would never take place, even if Washington requests.

South Korea's official Yonhap News Agency quoted the President's office as saying that "if Seoul has to discuss the issue in the auto sector with the United States, it will also propose additional discussions on the agricultural sector which suffers great pressure from public opinion in the country."

Lee and Obama said Thursday that during their talks they agreed to make progress on FTA that had yet to be ratified by US and South Korean legislatures two years after it was signed.

What would be the biggest free trade pact involving the US has been stalled over disagreements on access rights for US beef products and cars.

In 2008, South Korea shipped about 600,000 cars to the US, while US could export only 7,000 cars to South Korea.

It is estimated that FTA could increase their annual two-way trade turnover by about $20 billion from the current $83 billion.

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