The company dropped its preconditions on Friday. The NSEU said it would hear new offers from 7 June, three days after the planned 18-day walkout ends.

Samsung Electronics asked its largest union on Friday to come back to the bargaining table without conditions. The union said yes, eventually.

Talks could resume on 7 June, the National Samsung Electronics Union told reporters in Seoul, three days after the end of the 18-day strike it intends to begin on 21 May.

It is an unusual thing for an offer of unconditional dialogue to be met with a calendar invitation for after the picket line comes down.

The proposal, confirmed by the union and acknowledged by Samsung in a brief statement, came two days after government-mediated negotiations collapsed at the National Labor Relations Commission.

Investors took the response badly.…