Trump Hopes for Meeting with Kim Jong-un, He Raises Prospect of U.S. Seizing Some South Korean Land

“I’d like to have a meeting. I look forward to meeting with Kim Jong-un in the appropriate future,” Trump said during an occasionally awkward meeting at the Oval Office with South Korea’s new president, Lee Jae Myung, in which he raised the prospect of taking ownership of South Korean land that hosts a US military base.

Trump, who met Kim three times in his first term, hailed his relationship with the totalitarian leader and said he knew him “better than anybody, almost, other than his sister” – a reference to Kim’s younger sibling and confidante Kim Yo-jong. “Someday I’ll see him. I look forward to seeing him. He was very good with me,” Trump told reporters, saying he hoped the talks would take place this year.

Lee said the US president, who has attempted to bring peace – so far unsuccessfully – to longstanding disputes in Ukraine and the Middle East, was the “only person” who could end the decades-old standoff between South and North Korea, whose three-year war in the early 1950s ended in a truce but not a peace treaty.

“I look forward to your meeting with Chairman Kim Jong-un and construction of Trump Tower in North Korea and playing golf,” Lee said.

Trump also contended that North Korea had test-fired fewer missiles since he returned to the White House, although many analysts believe the regime’s focus is on its military support for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Some have also speculated that Kim has reined in missile tests while he appraises Lee, a liberal who believes in engagement with the North who was elected president in June.

Despite Trump’s claims, Kim has been emboldened by the war in Ukraine, securing critical support from the Kremlin after sending thousands of North Korean troops to fight along side Russian forces. North Korea has refused to enter talks aimed at ending its development of nuclear weapons. Instead, Kim has pledged to speed up his nuclear programme, and recently condemned joint US-South Korea military drills that North Korea regards as a rehearsal for an invasion. This weekend, Kim supervised the test firing of new air defence systems.

In a speech after his meeting in the Oval Office, Lee said he agreed with Trump on the need for the “peaceful denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula”.

But there were ominous signs for Lee in the hours leading up to his meeting in Washington, after Trump criticised the South Korean government, apparently over its handling of investigations related to the country’s former president, Yoon Suk Yeol, who was impeached and removed from office after a botched attempt to impose martial law late last year.

The US president posted on his Truth Social platform: “What is going on in South Korea? Seems like a purge or revolution. We can’t have that and do business there.”

The remarks cast a shadow over the high-stakes talks for Lee, although Trump later appeared to mellow after 40 minutes in which his South Korean counterpart heaped praise on the US president. Trump later rowed back on his post, saying, “I’m sure it’s a misunderstanding” as “there is a rumour going around”.

Lee spoke through an interpreter, breaking the pace of Trump, who does not hesitate to pick fights with his guests.

The US president, who frequently accuses European allies of freeloading off the US, made clear he would press hard for a greater contribution from South Korea towards the cost of hosting the 28,500 US troops in the country. Trump has made similar demands of the US’s other north-east Asian ally, Japan, which is home to almost 50,000 US troops.

He suggested the US could seek to take over base land, an idea likely to enrage Lee’s allies on the left of South Korean politics.

Trump said: “We spent a lot of money building a fort, and there was a contribution made by South Korea, but I would like to see if we could get rid of the lease and get ownership of the land where we have a massive military base.”

Despite the US and South Korea clinching a trade deal in July that spared South Korean exports harsher US tariffs, the two sides continue to wrangle over nuclear energy, military spending and details of a trade deal that included $350bn in promised South Korean investments in the United States.

South Korea’s economy relies heavily on the US, with Washington underwriting its security with troops and nuclear deterrence. Trump has called Seoul a “money machine” that takes advantage of American military protection.

Since Trump’s January inauguration, Kim has ignored Trump’s repeated calls to revive the direct diplomacy he pursued during his 2017-2021 term in office, which produced no deal to halt North Korea’s nuclear program. In the Oval Office, Lee avoided the theatrical confrontations that dominated a February visit by Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the Ukrainian president, and a May visit from Cyril Ramaphosa, the South African president.