WASHINGTON/SEOUL, Aug. 25 (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump mentioned on Monday he needed to fulfill North Korean chief Kim Jong Un this 12 months and was open to additional commerce talks with South Korea whilst he lobbed new criticisms on the visiting Asian ally.
“I’d like to meet him this year,” Trump advised reporters within the Oval Workplace as he welcomed South Korea’s new president, Lee Jae Myung, to the White Home for the primary time. “I look forward to meeting with Kim Jong Un in the appropriate future.”
AP Photograph/Susan Walsh, File
Regardless of clinching a commerce deal in July that spared South Korean exports harsher U.S. tariffs, the 2 sides proceed to wrangle over nuclear vitality, navy spending, and particulars of a deal that included $350 billion in promised South Korean investments in the USA.
After assembly with Trump, Lee attended a enterprise discussion board with senior U.S. officers and CEOs of South Korean and U.S. firms.
To coincide with the go to, South Korea’s flag provider, Korean Air, introduced an order for 103 Boeing plane, the most important order within the airline’s historical past.
Kim Ignores Trump Calls
North Korea didn’t instantly reply to a request for touch upon Trump’s remarks. Its state media mentioned later that U.S.-South Korea joint navy drills proved Washington’s intention to “occupy” the Korean peninsula and goal international locations within the area.
Since Trump’s January inauguration, Kim has ignored Trump’s repeated calls to revive the direct diplomacy he pursued throughout his 2017-2021 time period in workplace, which produced no deal to halt North Korea’s nuclear program.
Within the Oval Workplace, Lee averted the theatrical confrontations that dominated a February go to by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and a Could go to from South African President Cyril Ramaphosa.
Demetrius Freeman/The Washington Publish by way of Getty Pictures
Lee talked golf and lavished reward on the Republican president’s inside adorning and peacemaking, telling reporters earlier he had learn the president’s 1987 memoir, “Trump: The Art of the Deal,” to arrange.
“I hope you can bring peace to the Korean Peninsula, the only divided nation in the world, so that you can meet with Kim Jong Un, build a Trump World (real-estate complex) in North Korea so that I can play golf there, and so that you can truly play a role as a world-historical peacemaker,” Lee advised Trump, talking in Korean.
Lee’s workplace mentioned he and Trump mentioned shipbuilding and the assassination makes an attempt in opposition to each males. Lee additionally invited Trump to attend the summit of the Asia-Pacific Financial Cooperation (APEC) grouping in October, and recommended the American president attempt to meet with Kim through the journey, Lee’s workplace added.
“Despite the massive sanctions imposed to deter North Korea, the result has been the continuous development of nuclear weapons and missiles,” Lee mentioned throughout an occasion on the Heart for Strategic and Worldwide Research in Washington after the summit.
He mentioned North Korea now has the capability to construct 10 to twenty nuclear warheads per 12 months, and solely must excellent a reentry automobile to hold these warheads on its largest ballistic missiles that may attain the U.S.
Troublesome Points
South Korea’s financial system depends closely on the U.S., with Washington underwriting its safety with troops and nuclear deterrence. Trump has referred to as Seoul a “money machine” that takes benefit of American navy safety.
“I think we have a deal done” on commerce, Trump advised reporters. “They had some problems with it, but we stuck to our guns.” He didn’t elaborate, and the White Home didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.
Trump mentioned whereas sitting with Lee he would elevate “intel” he had acquired about South Korean investigations he mentioned focused church buildings and a navy base. The White Home didn’t reply to a request for extra data.
This month, Seoul police raided Sarang Jeil Church, headed by an evangelical preacher who led protests backing Lee’s ousted predecessor Yoon Suk Yeol.
In July, prosecutors investigating Yoon’s declaration of martial regulation served a search warrant on the Korean a part of a navy base collectively operated with the U.S. Officers have mentioned U.S. troops and supplies weren’t topic to the search.
South Korea’s far-right motion, particularly evangelical Christians and Yoon supporters, sees him as a sufferer of communist persecution.
Trump was anticipated to strain Lee to decide to extra protection spending, together with towards repairs of the 28,500 U.S. troops in South Korea.
Requested if he would scale back these numbers to present the U.S. extra regional flexibility, Trump mentioned: “I don’t want to say that now,” however that perhaps Seoul ought to give the U.S. possession of the “land where we have the big fort,” an obvious reference to Camp Humphreys, a U.S. Military garrison in South Korea.
Earlier than the assembly, Lee advised reporters it could be tough for Seoul to simply accept U.S. calls for to undertake such “flexibility” — a reference to utilizing U.S. forces for a wider vary of operations, together with China-related threats.
(Reporting by David Brunnstrom, Idrees Ali, Steve Holland, Trevor Hunnicutt and David Shepardson in Washington and Josh Smith, Joyce Lee, Hyun Joo Jin, Ju-min Park and Jack Kim in Seoul; Writing by Josh Smith and Trevor Hunnicutt; Enhancing by Lincoln Feast, Ed Davies, Michael Perry, Rod Nickel)
