The head of South Korea's leading automotive conglomerate Hyundai Motor Group called for stepped up efforts to develop and further explore overseas markets, Thursday, calling it the only viable way to overcome a prolonged slump in the South Korean market.

"Just as Hyundai and Kia have maintain their growth by exploring overseas markets, we must work to boost overseas sales as a way of overcoming current uncertainties," group chairman Chung Mong-koo was quoted as saying while visiting a production facility in Slovakia's northwestern city of Zilina.

Chung was referring to Hyundai Motor Co. and Kia Motors Corp. that together make up the world's fifth-largest automotive group.

The South Korean businessman is currently on a three-nation trip that will later take him to the Czech Republic.

His remarks came shortly after Hyundai Motor, South Korea's largest automaker, posted a total 5.1-percent on-year drop in sales after a 20.1-percent plunge in domestic sales in July. Its smaller affiliate Kia posted a 2.1-percent cut in its overall sales in the same month.

"Successful overseas business has provided the competitiveness Hyundai Motor Group has enjoyed for its growth. We must actively use returns from overseas markets in improving the company's brand image and R&D projects to develop new products, so they will continue to be a source of growth in the future," he said, according to the group.

The group said Europe's automobile market expanded 9.1 percent from a year earlier in the first half of the year, but that it was expected to grow only 0.7 percent in the remainder of the year due to worsened consumer and investor sentiment there following Britain's vote to leave the European Union.

"The European automobile market is expected to face many difficulties in the second half, but we must continue to expand our market share at a rate that currently exceeds the rate of market growth with our new and environmentally friendly cars that are just fit to meet the needs of the local market," Chung said. (Yonhap)