Program trading on South Korea's secondary bourse was briefly suspended on Monday after the KOSDAQ slipped by more than six percent, pushed down by international trade woes.

The Korea Exchange said a "sidecar" was activated for five minutes from 2:09 p.m. to temporarily suspend program trading of shares due to heavy fluctuation in the prices of Kosdaq 150 Futures and Kosdaq 150 Index.  

It was the first sidecar to be activated since June 24, 2016.