Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick walks away from Air Force One upon US President Donald Trump's arrival at Joint Base Andrews, Md., on July 15. (AP-Yonhap)
Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick walks away from Air Force One upon US President Donald Trump's arrival at Joint Base Andrews, Md., on July 15. (AP-Yonhap)

US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said Thursday that he could hear "expletives" out of South Korea after Japan reached a trade deal with US President Donald Trump's administration earlier this week.

Lutnick made the remarks, apparently suggesting that the tariff deal between the United States and Japan might have created a sense of urgency for South Korea, which seeks to reach a deal to avoid or lower the Trump administration's 25 percent "reciprocal" tariff set to kick in on Aug. 1.

"I could hear the expletives out of Korea when they read the Japanese deal because the Koreans and the Japanese ... they stare at each other," he said in a CNBC interview.

"So you can imagine what they were thinking when they saw that Japan made that deal. ... They were like, 'Oh man!," he added, underscoring that Koreans "very much" want to make a deal.

On Tuesday, Trump announced the deal with Tokyo that would lower the threatened 25 percent tariff for Japan to 15 percent in return for Japan's agreement to invest $550 billion in the US, increase US rice imports by 75 percent and buy 100 Boeing aircraft, to name a few.

During the interview, Lutnick said that he will engage in a meeting with South Korean negotiators in Washington on the day, after bilateral high-level trade talks, slated for Friday, were postponed.

Korea's Industry Minister Kim Jung-kwan and Trade Minister Yeo Han-koo are currently in Washington amid Seoul's stepped-up efforts to strike a deal with the US

"Of course, they are going to be in my office today talking," the secretary said.

Seoul and Washington had planned to hold "two-plus-two" trade talks Friday, where Seoul's Finance Minister Koo Yun-cheol, Trade Minister Yeo, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer were set to get together.

But the talks are now being rescheduled due to a "scheduling conflict," a Treasury spokesperson told Yonhap News Agency, noting that Bessent looks forward to meeting his South Korean counterparts "soon." (Yonhap)