Trump visits Seoul to meet President Lee Jae-myung for trade deal talks

Two busy days for President Donald Trump started Wednesday when he arrived in South Korea. Though a gathering with Kim Jong Un was not deliberate for this journey, his itinerary consists of talks with Chinese language President Xi Jinping, participation within the Asia-Pacific Financial Cooperation (APEC) Leaders Assembly and key talks with South Korean President Lee Jae myung.

Trump instructed reporters upon his arrival in South Korea that the much-publicized assembly with Kim Jong Un was not as a consequence of timing, however stated: “President Xi is coming tomorrow. And that was one thing that’s clearly essential for the world, for all of us. You’ll pay very shut consideration. We’re assembly right here, and we’re all wanting ahead to it. I feel it’ll work.’

Trump’s talks along with his South Korean counterpart come as each international locations transfer nearer to finalizing a brand new commerce deal.

Henry Haggard, former ministerial adviser for political affairs on the US Embassy in Seoul, instructed Fox Information Digital: “Trump’s most important purpose in assembly Lee Jae-myung is to safe a commerce deal and with it $350 billion in funding in america.”

TRUMP SAYS HE WOULD BE WILLING TO EXTEND ASIA TRIP TO MEET NORTH KOREA’S KIM JONG UN

President Donald Trump shakes fingers with South Korean President Lee Jae Myung whereas attending an honorary ceremony on the Gyeongju Nationwide Museum in Gyoeongju, South Korea, Wednesday, October 29, 2025. (AP)

“He may also attempt to push Lee to take a stronger stance on China, and improve protection spending. Lee will attempt to appeal Trump, as the important thing to protecting the bilateral relationship on monitor is for Lee to have a stronger relationship with Trump.”

In response to Haggard, the anticipated funding bundle will dominate the agenda. The 2 governments are negotiating a commerce framework geared toward increasing investments, coordinating provide chains and setting new requirements for digital and industrial insurance policies. Analysts say Seoul’s current regulatory crackdown on overseas expertise corporations has raised considerations in Washington, which sees the deal as a chance to revive investor confidence and curb China’s rising place within the area.

“The bilateral alliance, along with the trilateral relationship with Japan and Korea, is the important thing to competing with and deterring China, so the good play can be to carry Korea and Japan nearer to the US perspective on financial safety, vital minerals and the digital economic system, along with growing data sharing, shipbuilding cooperation and shared navy preparedness,” he stated.

“The USA and Korea are in search of to modernize the navy alliance, and america hopes to realize acquiescence, if not help, for its ‘strategic flexibility’ strategy,” he added. “Along with the menace posed by North Korea, america and Korea face regional and transnational threats, not simply from China, so any modernized alliance would acknowledge and search to organize for a broader vary of threats.”

Chinese language President Xi Jinping assesses the guard of honor in the course of the welcoming ceremony for Bahrain’s King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa on the Nice Corridor of the Folks on Could 31, 2024 in Beijing, China. Xi will meet President Donald Trump in South Korea in the course of the APEC summit. (Tingshu Wang/Pool/Getty Pictures)

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TRUMP AND KIM JONG UN MUST MAKE ‘BOLD DECISION’ TO MEET DURING HIS TRIP IN ASIA, SOUTH KOREAN OFFICIAL SAYS

The assembly with Lee comes a day earlier than Trump meets Chinese language President Xi Jinping in Seoul.

Lee, who leads a left-wing authorities, is anticipated to steadiness home financial reforms with the necessity to keep the soundness of the alliance. Some in Seoul’s authorities fear that stronger ties with Trump may provoke Chinese language retaliation or alienate progressive voters.

“The US alliance with South Korea is in peril as a result of President Lee Jae-myung may be very pro-China and really anti-American,” stated Gordon Chang, an writer and Asia analyst. “That places our relationship with South Korea in danger. The South Korean individuals might love america greater than ever, however their authorities detests us.”

U.S. President Donald Trump and Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi arrive to talk with troops aboard the USS George Washington at Fleet Exercise Yokosuka on Oct. 28, 2025, in Yokosuka, Japan. Trump is visiting Japan, contemporary off his look on the ASEAN summit in Malaysia, and can then journey to South Korea for the APEC conferences. (Andrew Harnik/Getty Pictures)

Haggard believes Lee has little political room to float away from Washington. “There’s little likelihood that Lee will considerably shift away from the give attention to the alliance with america, even when some in his get together would welcome such a transfer, as a result of the overwhelming majority of the Korean individuals help robust ties with america, help the presence of American troops and perceive that their future safety depends upon clean relations with their solely ally, america.”

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On the similar time, Haggard warned that variations in financial insurance policies may pose new challenges. “Home financial coverage in South Korea has traditionally been a supply of friction, however solely peripherally as a consequence of South Korea’s comparatively low historic degree of funding. Because the Korean economic system turns into extra world and its corporations turn out to be world leaders past simply their exports, variations in financial insurance policies may turn out to be extra troublesome for bilateral relations.”

He added that stricter regulation of overseas funding “would probably trigger friction with america as the 2 international locations try and signal and implement a commerce deal.”