WASHINGTON ― The United States Friday repeated its call on South Korea to make concessions for a wider opening of its auto market so the U.S. can ratify a pending bilateral free trade agreement, Yonhap News reported..

"We want to ensure that the Korea FTA does provide access for U.S. automobiles to the Korean market," Jeffrey Bader, senior director for East Asian affairs at the National Security Council, told a forum at the Brookings Institution. "But the timing of when this can be done and what is politically seizable are very political."

Bader was echoing U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk, who demanded Thursday that South Korea address Washington's concerns over an imbalance in auto trade and limits on American beef imports before the ratification of the FTA, signed in June 2007.