Despite weeks of frantic diplomacy, the chances of South Korea and the United States sealing a trade deal before next week’s Apec summit appear to be slim, with strong domestic backing enabling Seoul to resist a compromise seen as perilous to the national economy.

SEOUL, Oct. 24 (Yonhap) -- Next week's Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) gathering brings South Korea to the center of potentially highly-stakes diplomacy with the United States and China, as the leaders of the two world powers are widely expected to join the multilateral gathering on trade and growth.

South Korean Foreign Affairs Minister Cho Hyun discusses an elusive trade deal with the US, his views on North Korea, as well as the upcoming APEC summit in an interview with Correspondent Lim Yun Suk on CNA's East Asia Tonight.

North Korea fired a flurry of short-range ballistic missiles on Wednesday, Seoul's military said, a week ahead of U.S. President Donald Trump's scheduled visit to the APEC summit.

North Korea performed its first ballistic missile tests in five months Wednesday, days before U.S. President Donald Trump and other leaders are expected to meet in South Korea. South Korea's military detected multiple suspected short-range ballistic missiles launched from an area south of Pyongyang,