*SOUTH KOREA'S SOUP*

SEOUL has agreed to a quota for steel exports to the US$ 30 percent below current sales and accepted-

Extended tariffs on pick-up trucks to secure - a revised trade deal with Washington and escape its steel duties, the government admitted Monday.

South Korea and the United States are security allies both threatened by the nuclear-armed North but since taking office US President Donald Trump repeatedly threatened to tear up their - Free-trade agreement, raising concerns about undermining the economic leg of their alliance.

The Trump administration instigated talks in July to renegotiate the free-trade treaty, known as  KORUS , and the US last week imposed duties on steel imports from multiple countries including China, raising fears of a trade war.

South Korea and the United States have agreed ''in principle'' on revisions of their free trade agreement (FTA) and steel tariffs, Seoul's trade minister said Monday.

The South's economy is heavily dependent on trade, with the US as its second-biggest partner and Seoul's trade minister said Monday they had reached agreement on revising KORUS deal-

After weeks of negotiations.

Under the pact, Seoul will further open its auto market to the US manufacturers and, while accepting a 20 year extension until 2041 to a 25 percent US tariff on South Korean pick-up trucks.

On steel, South Korea accepted an annual export quota of 2.68 million tonnes to the US, 70 percent of average shipments in the past three years.

The amount will be exempted from the US steel tariffs, trade minister Kim Hyon-chong told reporters, but any excess will be liable to penalties.

He described the negotiations as ''fierce'' but insisted:

''As a negotiator, I can say it was a negotiating table where I had nothing to to feel inferior about.''

But Sogang University international trade professor Heo Yoon told AFP. ''The US got what it wanted.''  [Agencies].