Overview

• South Korean President Lee Jae Myung proposed that President Trump meet Kim Jong Un, and Trump said he would like to see Kim this year, though no date was set.
• Lee cautioned in Washington that North Korea is nearing an intercontinental missile capable of reaching the United States and is building capacity to produce roughly 10 to 20 atomic bombs annually.
• Trump pressed Seoul to increase payments for hosting about 28,500 U.S. troops and suggested seeking control of land under a major U.S. base in South Korea.
• The White House encounter was cordial despite Trump’s earlier Truth Social claim of a “political purge” in South Korea, which he later characterized as a misunderstanding tied to reported raids on churches and a base.
• The meeting yielded no firm commitments on a Trump–Kim summit, U.S. troop basing or higher South Korean contributions, and no new joint plan to counter Pyongyang’s weapons expansion.