Choi Won-mok at Ewha Womans University said, "We need to accept the fact that renegotiation will happen, even if they were not explicitly mentioned in the joint statement" Trump and President Moon Jae-in made after their summit.

FTA renegotiations cannot in principle be forced on the other side unilaterally, but the U.S. has plenty of means at its disposal to make Korea comply and could in theory scrap the pact altogether.

U.S. President Donald Trump's claim that Seoul and Washington "are renegotiating a trade deal right now" has stoked fears that the time is up for the Korea-U.S. free trade agreement in its present form.

But the White House's first priority seems to be the North American Free Trade Agreement or NAFTA after Trump stirred up anti-Mexican feelings to fever pitch on the campaign trail. Supposing that takes about a year, renegotiations of the Korea-U.S. FTA would start at the end of 2018.

"The U.S. Trade Representative is currently preparing to renegotiate NAFTA, while the U.S. Commerce Department is analyzing America's trade deficit, so it's difficult to start renegotiations of the Korea-U.S. FTA right now," said Ahn Duk-geun at Seoul National University.

But renegotiations will probably have only a limited impact on Korea's exports. The U.S. International Trade Association recently concluded that the FTA reduced the U.S.' trade deficit with Korea by US$15.8 billion. That is the second biggest among the trade pacts the U.S. has signed.

Huh Yoon at Sogang University said, "There is a widespread view even in the U.S. Senate that the Korea-U.S. FTA is a 'win-win' deal, so there probably won't be a complete overhaul. Maybe there'll be a partial revision will take place or further opening Korea's medical, financial and legal industries."

The state-run Korea Institute for Industrial Economics and Trade recently said that most of the tariffs in both countries have been removed since the FTA went into effect in 2012, so any revision will have only a limited impact.

Ahn at SNU said, "Many American auto plants moved to Mexico due to NAFTA, so there is a lot of sensitivity about lost jobs in that field. The U.S. raised the issue of the car industry in the original Korea-U.S. negotiations, so we'll see what happens."