Lee Jae-myung repeatedly praised Trump, creating a friendly atmosphere, helping the meeting with the US President go smoothly, despite initial tensions.
South Korean President Lee Jae-myung arrived at the White House on August 25 for a summit with US President Donald Trump. Trade and security cooperation were the topics Mr. Lee wanted to focus on, as the US-South Korea alliance has recently faced many challenges due to geopolitical changes.
Tensions arose right before the meeting began, with Mr. Trump’s post on social media threatening to stop trade cooperation with South Korea. “What’s going on in South Korea? It looks like a purge or uprising. We can’t let that happen and we can’t do business there,” he wrote.
He mentioned the South Korean government’s raids on churches and US military bases, saying that Seoul “shouldn’t do that.” South Korean Justice Minister Jung Sung-ho said the US president and his officials had “distorted information” about President Lee Jae-myung and the ruling Liberty Korea Party.
That led to concerns that the prospects for cooperation between South Korea and the US would be overshadowed by the dispute between the two sides. But after the meeting between Mr. Lee and Mr. Trump at the White House, the atmosphere was no longer tense.
“We understood each other and got along very well,” Mr. Trump said. “It was an honor to meet you and congratulations on winning the election. It was a great victory, we support you 100%.”
According to AP, this change shows that Mr. Lee has learned from previous meetings between Mr. Trump and world leaders in the Oval Office. Instead of confrontation and argument, most of them chose to praise, seeking beneficial commitments from Washington.
Mr. Lee began the meeting by praising one of Mr. Trump’s favorite projects, the interior design of the White House. “I heard that you recently redecorated the Oval Office. Everything looks beautiful and bright,” Mr. Lee said. “It exudes the majesty of America, symbolizing a new and prosperous future.”
Mr. Lee noted that the Dow Jones index of the US stock market has continuously set records during Mr. Trump’s second term. The Blue House owner wants the White House owner to help the two sides on the Korean Peninsula unify. When President Trump mentioned the possibility of meeting the North Korean leader this year, Mr. Lee expressed his support.
“If you take the role of ‘peacemaker’, I will do my best to be the ‘pacemaker’ to support you,” Mr. Lee said. “I look forward to meeting you and Chairman Kim Jong-un, building Trump Tower in North Korea and playing golf there. Mr. Kim will be waiting for you.”
Lee agreed that if Trump’s two terms had not been interrupted, North Korea would not have developed its nuclear capabilities in recent years. The South Korean president noted that a “renaissance” was underway and that he believed Trump was “the only leader who could have achieved such things.”
Lee’s strategy worked, creating a friendly atmosphere that made Trump feel no need to ask difficult questions or attack his South Korean counterpart. When a reporter asked about the social media post, the White House boss dismissed it as a misunderstanding.
“It doesn’t sound very Korean to me,” Trump said, adding that the two leaders would discuss the issue later. Lee explained that the searches Trump mentioned were conducted by the special prosecutor, in an investigation into his predecessor, Yoon Suk-yeol, who was ousted for illegally declaring martial law late last year.
Trump then interjected. “Is that prosecutor’s name going to be Jack Smith the Madman?” Trump joked. Smith is the special prosecutor investigating Trump for allegedly plotting to sway the 2020 election and illegally withholding classified documents.
“Lee’s Oval Office press conference went better than expected,” Leif-Eric Easley, a professor of international studies at Ewha Womans University in Seoul, told Reuters.
While questions remain about how much South Korea will pay for the US to station troops in the country and the trade deal between the two countries, Lee avoided an unnecessary confrontation with a key ally.
“The meeting ended without any dramatic developments,” said Cheong Seong-chang, vice president of the Sejong Institute in Seoul. But keeping things vague means South Korea will not achieve its own goals, such as asking the US to approve nuclear fuel reprocessing or amending laws related to shipbuilding.
“Trump didn’t embarrass Lee. Both sides tried to avoid sensitive issues,” said Jun Kwang-woo, president of the Institute for Global Economics. “President Trump seems to not want to inflame tensions with Lee, as the US leader has poor relations with other countries.”
The US-South Korea summit is seen as the biggest foreign policy test for Lee since he took office in June. South Korea has long been a target of Trump’s criticism, with the White House chief calling the country a “money-making machine” that is taking advantage of US security protections.
Trump’s pre-meeting tweets were “very scary,” Lee said later at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in Washington. “Aides were worried we might have a ‘Zelensky moment.'”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky visited the White House in February to meet Trump, but the event degenerated into a heated exchange of words in front of the media in the Oval Office, which subsequently strained US-Ukraine relations.
“But I knew I wouldn’t be in that situation. That’s because I read President Trump’s book, The Art of the Deal,” Lee said. “And given the importance of the US-ROK alliance, I believe he will not harm bilateral relations.”