US President Donald Trump has met with South Korean President Lee Jae Myung as part of the final leg of his whirlwind trip across Asia.
The meeting comes as both countries are still trying to reach a trade deal – which still appears elusive despite a private meeting that lasted almost two hours on Wednesday.
A deal had been announced in late July under which South Korea would avoid the worst of the tariffs by pumping $350bn (£264bn) of new investments into America. But talks over the structure of those investments have been deadlocked.
Both countries have historically been key allies – but tensions spiked after hundreds of South Koreans were detained in an immigration raid in the US last month.
Trump is currently on a week-long trip in Asia. He will meet his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping in on Thursday on the sidelines of a summit of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) which is taking place in Gyeongju.
China’s foreign ministry has confirmed the meeting, which will take place in the city of Busan on Thursday, a short flight away from Gyeongju.
This will be the two leaders’ first face to face meeting since Trump assumed office in 2025 and imposed tariffs on every country in the world.
Addressing a group of CEOs in Gyeongju on Wednesday, Trump said that he believes the US is “going to have a deal” with China and it will be “a good deal for both”.
He also praised the Apec countries for making the global trading system, which he said had been “broken” and “in urgent need of reform”, fairer.
“Economic security is national security,” Trump says. “That’s for South Korea, that’s for any country.”
Golden crowns and grand orders
Ahead of Wednesday’s talks with President Lee, Trump had been greeted by an honour guard and gifts that included a golden crown.
“I’d like to wear it right now,” Trump had said of the crown.
He also received the Grand Order of Mugunghwa, South Korea’s highest decoration.
He’s the first US president to receive the award, which was given “in recognition of his contribution to peace on the Korean Peninsula”, the South Korean presidential office said.
Both leaders took part in a working lunch – which was followed by a private meeting in the afternoon, though no concrete deal seems to have come of it.
Both sides had earlier played down the prospect of a breakthrough in talks – a fact that will disappoint many in South Korea’s electronics, chip and auto industries, which had been hoping for some clarity amidst the tariff chaos.
Neither Washington nor Seoul have published any further details on the results of the talks.
Trump had slapped a tariff rate on Seoul of 25% earlier this year – which Lee managed to negotiate down to 15%, after Seoul said it would invest $350bn in the US and buy $100bn worth of liquified natural gas.
But the White House later increase its demands as part of the trade talks, with Trump pushing for cash investments in the US.
Trump’s arrival in South Korea had been preceded by North Korea test-firing surface-to-air cruise missiles.
The US president had expressed interest in meeting North Korean leader Kim Jong Un but noted on Wednesday that his team had been unable to arrange this during his trip.
Noting the long-standing tensions between North and South Korea, Trump said “we will see what we can do to get that all straightened out”.
And outside the summit venue where both leaders were meeting, a small anti-Trump group of protesters gathered on Wednesday afternoon, with some shouting anti-Trump slogans. Police could be seen forcibly dispersing the crowd and arresting some people.
However, hundreds more attended a pro-Trump rally – including those who shouted anti-Chinese rhetoric – also took places close to the summit venue.
Anti-Chinese sentiment in South Korea has also grown steadily in recent years. Chinese interference became a common trope in conspiracy theories about former South Korean president Yoon Suk Yeol.
During his trip to Japan on Tuesday, the US president signed an agreement on rare earth minerals with Tokyo, as well as a document heralding a new “golden age” of US-Japan relations. This reiterated the commitment of the two countries to implement deals struck earlier, including the 15% tariff deal negotiated earlier this year.
Prior to that, he attended a gathering of South East Asian leaders, known as Asean, in Malaysia. There he presided over a “peace deal”between Thailand and Cambodia, whose longstanding border dispute erupted into open conflict in July.
By BBC News
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