Overview

• At the White House, Lee Jae Myung urged Donald Trump to meet Kim Jong Un, and Trump said he would like to see Kim this year.
• Key alliance questions remained unresolved, including higher South Korean contributions for the 28,500 U.S. troops and Trump’s floated idea of U.S. ownership of base land.
• Hours before the meeting, Trump accused South Korea of a “political purge” on Truth Social, a claim he later played down as a misunderstanding.
• Speaking at CSIS after the visit, Lee warned that North Korea is nearing an ICBM capable of reaching the United States and is building capacity to produce 10–20 nuclear bombs annually.
• The visit featured commercial gestures as Korean Air announced an order for 103 Boeing jets, but no binding deals on security or denuclearization were announced.