South Korean business leaders met members of a US congressional delegation Tuesday to discuss ways to expand ties in trade and investment, a local economic agency said.

The Korea International Trade Association arranged the meeting between visiting US congressmen and some 90 executives from local conglomerates and American companies operating in South Korea so as to allow the participants to exchange views on pending economic issues between Seoul and Washington.

The US side was led by Ed Royce (R-CA), the chairman of the US House Foreign Relations Committee. He arrived in Seoul on Sunday for a four-day trip with four other lawmakers. 

They discussed the issue of amending the five-year-old free trade agreement between the two countries as well as security issues on the Korean Peninsula following the latest launch of missiles by North Korea.

In a joint statement issued after the event, Royce and KITA Chairman and CEO Kim said they will strengthen efforts to promote bilateral trade and investment and cooperate in awareness campaigns about the reciprocal effect of the free trade pact on both countries. 

The bilateral open trade pact -- which went into effect in 2012

-- has widely been considered a symbol of deepening economic ties, but US President Donald Trump has vowed to fix or scrap the free trade deal, calling it "horrible."

The two-way trade volume increased to $109.6 billion in 2016 from $100.8 billion in 2011, with South Korea's trade surplus reaching some $27 billion last year, up from $11.6 billion tallied five years earlier.

"The deal has benefited both sides and helped achieve economic growth over the past five years," Kim said in the statement. (Yonhap)