U.S. President Donald Trump said on Tuesday South Korea should be paying for its own military protection and suggested the U.S. ally needed to pay more for the U.S. troop presence there, a day after saying he planned to impose a 25 percent tariff on its imports.

The country’s new president, in office for a little over a month, had just dispatched his senior deputies to Washington to try to work out a trade deal.

Korea's Foreign Ministry said Wednesday it will comply with the existing terms of the defense cost-sharing deal with the United States, after U.S. President Donald Trump said Seoul should pay for its own defense.