South Korea’s top diplomat said Donald Trump’s recent threat to raise tariffs on goods from its US ally is not connected to an ongoing investigation into a high-profile data breach at e-commerce company Coupang Inc.

“We see Coupang as unrelated to the current tariff issue,” Foreign Minister Cho Hyun told a seminar in Seoul on Thursday. “Interpreting it as linked is not only inaccurate, but I also think that by doing so, we would be unnecessarily lowering our own negotiating position.”

South Korea is seeking to defuse renewed trade tensions with the US, its second-largest export market, after Trump threatened to hike tariffs on imports from Korea to 25 percent in retaliation for a perceived lack of progress by Seoul to implement provisions in a trade deal agreed last year.

Vice President JD Vance further ratcheted up tensions by warning South Korean Prime Minister Kim Min-seok last week in Washington against penalizing US technology firms, including Coupang, according to a person familiar with the discussion.

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Trump said he would hike tariffs on South Korean imports, citing what he described as lawmakers’ failure to codify a trade deal reached last year. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent echoed that position Wednesday, telling CNBC in an interview that there is “no trade deal until they ratify it,” referring to South Korea’s parliament.

Following the announcement of last year’s accord, a domestic bill — known as the Special Law on Strategic Investment with the US — was introduced to the South Korean parliament in late November. The legislation is pending review by a subcommittee and is yet to pass.

Asked whether South Korea would face a 25 percent tariff until ratification, Bessent said, “I think it’s helpful to get things moved along.” Under the pact announced in July, South Korea currently faces a 15 percent tariff.

Cho declined to give a timeline for passage of the bill, saying the issue rests with the National Assembly. Kim Yong-beom, South Korea’s presidential policy chief, told reporters Wednesday he hopes lawmakers will approve it next month.  

Coupang, often compared to Amazon, is widely popular in South Korea and has been under scrutiny for a data breach last year. 

While there has been frustration in the US over Korean digital-services regulations, officials told Bloomberg News earlier that efforts to shield US internet companies from regulations aren’t directly connected to the president’s latest vow to hike duties.

READ MORE: South Korea police raid Coupang HQ over historic data breach

South Korea sent its Industry Minister Kim Jung-kwan to the US for talks with Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick as part of follow-up discussions on the latest trade friction. Kim plans to seek clarification on the latest US move and outline South Korea’s efforts toward a “friendly resolution,” his office said.

South Korea’s Presidential Policy Chief Kim Yong-beom told reporters Wednesday that “it’s only natural to expect the US to go back and forth” on the issue on whether to raise tariffs, underscoring the uncertainty surrounding the process. “What is clear is that any outcome should be beneficial to both South Korea and the US.”

Japan has also struck a trade deal with the US with provisions similar to South Korea’s. Kim said while South Korea’s situation differs from Japan’s in some respects, US officials appear to view the two agreements through a similar lens, as investment-fund concepts proposed around the same time.

He added that Japan already has the legal framework to move ahead with such investments, allowing discussions to progress more quickly even though projects there have yet to be formally launched. From Washington’s perspective, Korea’s process has moved more slowly because legislation needed to formally approve a legal basis for any projects to move forward.