South Korea's top carmaker Hyundai Motor Co. said Monday it is recalling some 263,000 units of its Elantra compact in the United States and in Canada for a programming error in the model's electronic power steering function.

"The current setting for the cars may have turned off the power steering in some of the vehicles, resulting in increased heaviness in the steering wheel," a Hyundai official said, adding that the flaw has not led to any accidents or injuries so far.

"Although the problem seems to have occurred in only a small portion of the model, we decided on a recall to have the vehicles reprogrammed."

The recall covers 205,000 units in the United States and another 58,000 units in Canada, and affected cars are some Elantra models manufactured between June 2008 and April 2010, according to a recall report by the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. (Yonhap)