South Korea's main stock market is in turmoil, falling more than seven percent on Friday morning.

The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index(KOSPI) slipped to one-thousand-698-point-88, as of noon, down 135-point-45 points or seven-point-38 percent from the previous close.

A circuit breaker was put in place for the main bourse and trading was suspended for 20 minutes when the index plunged more than eight percent.

Earlier in the day, a similar move was also introduced for the secondary KOSDAQ market.