South Korean president asks Trump to mediate peace between the two Koreas, the president says he wants to meet Kim Jong-un
President Lee Jae Myung traveled to Washington with the clear objective of ironing out differences with Trump and brought with him the executives of major South Korean companies that announced investments in the country.
Presidents Donald Trump and Lee Jae Myung
U.S. President Donald Trump said he is willing to meet with North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un, he told his South Korean counterpart, Lee Jae Myung, who asked the president to mediate peace between the two Koreas during his visit to the White House, praising the Republican leader.
“I think you are the first president to have so much interest in the world’s peace issues and actually made achievements,” Lee said. “So, I hope you would make peace on the Korean Peninsula … and meet with Kim Jong-un.”
Later, the South Korean president said he would "actively" support Trump if he wanted to "play the peacemaker," asserting that the U.S. president was “the only person who can actually solve” conflicts between North Korea and South Korea, which have remained at war since 1953.
Trump, for his part, responded enthusiastically and assured that he is willing to meet with Kim: “I will do that, and we’ll have talks. He’d like to meet with me."
“We look forward to meeting with him, and we’ll make relations better. You’ll help that,” Trump added.
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The meeting undoubtedly represented a major litmus test for President Lee, at a time when Seoul's trade and military relations with Washington are severely compromised, especially by Trump's criticism against the progressive South Korean leader.
In fact, Lee traveled to Washington with the clear objective of ironing out differences with Trump and brought with him the executives of major South Korean companies that announced multi-billion dollar investments in the country.
Korean Air, for example, announced that it plans to acquire 103 aircraft from Boeing along with engines and a maintenance program from GE Aerospace and CFM International, for a total of $50 billion. Likewise, Hyundai Motor Group, which has been affected by Trump's tariff policies, announced that it will increase its investments in the U.S. from $21 billion to $26 billion.
In total, South Korean companies will invest $150 billion in the U.S., President Lee confirmed.
In addition to the investments, Lee sought to get close to Trump's personal style with highly symbolic gifts: a custom-designed putter, two cowboy hats with the slogan "Make America Great Again" and a model of a historic "turtle ship."
In a joking tone, the South Korean president even suggested building a Trump Tower in Pyongyang to play golf in North Korea after peace is reached.
“I look forward to your meeting with Chairman Kim Jong-un and construction of Trump Tower in North Korea and playing golf,” Lee told Trump.
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Trump, meanwhile, already successfully achieved three meetings with Kim between 2018 and 2019, in an unprecedented diplomatic process that included a historic crossing to North Korean territory in the demilitarized zone. However, although that breakthrough represented hope for peace, those talks ended without timely progress on Pyongyang's denuclearization and, since then, the North Korean regime significantly expanded its military capabilities, the president claimed in Washington.
According to the South Korean leader, Kim's regime already produces between 10 and 20 nuclear weapons a year and is in the final stages of developing intercontinental ballistic missiles.
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