SEOUL, South Korea — South Korea’s new President Lee Jae Myung will travel to Washington later this month to meet with U.S. President Donald Trump, Lee’s office said Tuesday, for talks on trade and defense cooperation in the face of nuclear-armed North Korea and other threats.
Their Aug. 25 summit will follow a July trade deal in which Washington agreed to cut its reciprocal tariff on South Korea to 15% from the initially proposed 25% and to apply the same reduced rate to South Korean cars, the country’s top export to the United States.
South Korea also agreed to purchase $100 billion in U.S. energy and invest $350 billion in the country, and Lee and Trump may discuss how the investment package will be structured and managed. The talks are expected to cover expanding cooperation in key industries such as semiconductors, batteries and shipbuilding, Lee’s spokesperson Kang Yu-jung said.
Lee, a liberal who won an early election in June to replace ousted conservative Yoon Suk Yeol, has made the economy his top priority, aiming to shield the trade-dependent nation from the shocks of Trump’s tariff hikes and his demands that allies cut reliance on Washington and shoulder more of their own defense costs.
Lee’s meeting with Trump comes amid concerns in Seoul that the Trump administration could shake up the decades-old alliance by demanding higher payments for the U.S. troop presence in South Korea and possibly move to reduce it as Washington shifts more focus on China.
Lee and Trump will discuss strengthening the allies’ defense posture against growing North Korean threats, and also developing the partnership into a “future-oriented, comprehensive strategic alliance” to address the changing international security and economic environment, according to Kang, who didn’t elaborate on the specific issues to be addressed.
Dating back to his first term, Trump has regularly called for South Korea to pay more for the 28,500 American troops stationed on its soil. Recent comments