WASHINGTON: United States President Donald Trump stated his intention to meet North Korean leader Kim Jong Un this year during South Korean President Lee Jae Myung’s White House visit.
“I’d like to meet him this year,“ Trump told reporters in the Oval Office while welcoming South Korea’s new president.
Trump and Lee conducted their first meeting amid tense circumstances following Trump’s social media complaints about a “Purge or Revolution” in South Korea that he later termed a probable “misunderstanding” between allies.
The leaders continued negotiating nuclear energy, military spending, and implementation details of a July trade agreement that included 350 billion dollars in promised South Korean investments in the United States.
North Korea did not immediately respond to Trump’s remarks, with state media instead criticising US-South Korea joint military drills as proof of Washington’s intention to “occupy” the Korean peninsula.
Kim Jong Un has ignored Trump’s repeated calls to revive direct diplomacy since January’s inauguration, despite their previous meetings between 2017 and 2021 that produced no nuclear agreement.
Lee employed flattery and golf discussions during the Oval Office meeting, telling reporters he had read Trump’s 1987 memoir “Trump: The Art of the Deal” to prepare for the visit.
The South Korean president encouraged Trump to engage with North Korea, suggesting he could “build a Trump World real-estate complex in North Korea so that I can play golf there.”
Trump pressed Seoul on both trade and military alliance issues, stating “I think we have a deal done on trade” while indicating South Korea would honour their agreed commitments.
The US president referenced unspecified “intel” about South Korean investigations targeting churches and a military base, though the White House provided no additional information.
Trump suggested Seoul might grant the United States ownership of the “land where we have the big fort,“ apparently referring to Camp Humphreys, the US Army garrison in South Korea.
Lee faces pressure to increase defense spending, including support for the 28,500 US troops stationed in South Korea, while maintaining balanced relations with China, Seoul’s top trade partner.
The South Korean president will visit Hanwha Group’s Philadelphia shipyard on Tuesday to highlight expected US investments before Trump’s anticipated attendance at October’s Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in South Korea. – Reuters
