South Korean president feared a "Zelenskyy moment" at meeting with Trump – Politico

South Korean President Lee Jae-men, elected in June, has revealed that his staff were "worried that we might face a ‘Zelenskyy moment’" during his first meeting with US President Donald Trump at the White House on 25 August. Earlier that day Trump had posted on social media questioning democracy in South Korea.

Source: Politico, citing Lee’s remarks at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington 

Details: Lee said he personally had been confident he would not encounter a situation like the one that befell Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy when Trump and Vice-President JD Vance confronted him live in the Oval Office. 

"That’s because I had read President Trump’s book The Art of the Deal," Lee explained.

He said the conversation with Trump turned out "better than he expected". According to Lee, he came away with a better understanding of Trump, received encouragement, and the meeting ran longer than scheduled.

Politico notes that ahead of the meeting, Trump sought to inject drama by posting on Truth Social on the morning of 25 August: "WHAT IS GOING ON IN SOUTH KOREA? Seems like a Purge or Revolution. We can’t have that and do business there. I am seeing the new President today at the White House. Thank you for your attention to this matter!!!" He later told the press he had "heard bad things" about the domestic situation in South Korea.

Lee said on Monday evening that the two leaders focused their discussion on strengthening economic ties and on how to "modernise our bilateral alliance to be more reciprocal and future-oriented in line with the changing security landscape".

He did not give details of an oral trade agreement he said he reached with Trump last month that sets a 15% tariff on the country’s goods in exchange for commitments to invest over US$350 billion and to purchase an additional US$100 billion of energy supplies.

In the Oval Office on Monday, Trump said the South Korean side had hoped to revisit some terms of that trade arrangement. Later the same day, he said the US would not yield. "They had some problems with it, but we stuck to our guns. We are going to, they’re going to make the deal that they agreed to make," Trump said.

News then emerged throughout the day about South Korean investment in the US. 

Amazon announced it would partner with South Korean firms to help roll out small nuclear reactors nationwide via the start-up X-energy, in what the companies said would be a US$50 billion investment. Boeing and GE Aerospace signed a US$50 billion agreement with Korean Air to purchase 103 Boeing aircraft.

It was also reported that on 26 August Lee is to visit a Philadelphia shipyard acquired by a South Korean firm in December – one of the areas where the US administration is counting on South Korean investment to help revive US industry that has fallen behind global standards. "The K-shipbuilding industry, equipped with the world’s strongest capabilities, will bring about a renaissance of the US shipbuilding industry and create a new historic turning point for mutual prosperity," Lee said.

He also underlined the importance of the US–South Korea military alliance in countering what he called the growing nuclear threat from North Korea. Lee said Seoul does not intend to develop its own nuclear deterrent but warned that Pyongyang’s drive to develop intercontinental ballistic missiles with nuclear warheads poses an increasing international threat.

At the same time, the South Korean president did not shift on his country’s relations with China, avoiding any suggestion of severing ties with the world’s second-largest economy and major Asian geopolitical player. 

"Korea is currently kind of distanced from America’s export controls and supply chain controls regarding China. But because we are geographically very closely located to China, we are maintaining our relationship with China," Lee said.

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