The office of South Korea's national security adviser said after a phone call with US National Security Advisor H.R. McMaster that US promised to abide by the existing agreement, but McMaster later gave a different account, saying that what he said during the call was that the US will stick to the agreement "until any renegotiation."

"It is true that there has been no desire (expressed) or consultations (between the two countries) to change the existing agreement," a senior South Korean official told reporters on the condition of anonymity.

"The same is with FTA," the official said.

The remark means that US has not expressed its desire to renegotiate the free trade agreement with South Korea despite Trump's assertion that he would renegotiate or terminate the deal.

Trump made the remark in an interview with Reuters last week, denouncing what has been touted as an economic alliance between the two countries as "horrible." (Yonhap)