Trump Heads to South Korea as Anticipation Builds for Xi Jinping Meeting
President heads to Korea for high-stakes Xi showdown.
US President Donald Trump embarks on his journey to South Korea Wednesday, wrapping up an Asia tour that included warm receptions at a regional summit in Malaysia and effusive praise as a "peacemaker" from Japan's Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi during bilateral discussions on defense and economic ties. The spotlight intensifies on his long-awaited Thursday meeting with China's Xi Jinping—their first face-to-face in six years—where negotiators from both capitals have already hashed out a preliminary "framework" aimed at de-escalating the trade war that's hammered global markets, disrupted semiconductor and auto supply chains, and spiked inflation worldwide.
Analyst William Yang from the International Crisis Group underscores a fundamental divergence in objectives: the United States is pushing aggressively for a tangible "victory" that Trump can tout domestically, potentially including concessions on rare-earth exports and intellectual property protections, while Beijing prioritizes incremental steps toward mutual trust, careful navigation of historical frictions like Taiwan and tech rivalry, and stabilizing the bilateral economic relationship to avoid further volatility. Success here could pave the way for tariff reductions and renewed investment flows; a stalemate risks prolonging uncertainty that has already cost trillions in lost trade value.
Arriving in Busan after two days in Tokyo, where Takaichi celebrated a "golden age" of US-Japan cooperation amid joint exercises and trade pacts, Trump will proceed to Gyeongju for his second summit with South Korean President Lee Jae Myung, just two months after their Washington encounter. The agenda zeros in on unresolved trade hurdles between these key partners, including a July outline where Seoul pledged $350 billion in investments—targeting US chip fabs and EV battery plants—in return for slashing tariffs on Korean imports to 15 percent. However, steep duties on autos linger unresolved, and disagreements over investment timelines and guarantees persist; US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent described the pact as "complicated" with "a lot of details to work out" on Monday, though Trump dismisses any notion of a "snag," insisting progress is steady.
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In Gyeongju, activists are mobilizing protests against Trump, decrying his initial tariff blitz as the spark for the global trade inferno and labeling his investment demands "predatory" exploitation of allies amid the broader economic standoff. Heightening the diplomatic stakes, Trump has issued a bold invitation to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un for a possible Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) rendezvous, harking back to their dramatic 2019 crossing of the tense Cold War divide that separated the Koreas for over 70 years. Trump expressed he'd "love to meet" to explore sanctions relief, but Pyongyang has offered no public reply, leaving Seoul officials divided on prospects; Kim recently invoked "fond memories" of past summits while conditioning fresh talks on Washington abandoning its "delusional" insistence on full denuclearization.
NK News founder Chad O'Carroll affirms Trump's clear intent—"the ball is in Kim Jong Un's court"—yet warns of a transformed landscape since 2019, with Kim now empowered by deepened Russian support after dispatching thousands of North Korean troops to bolster Moscow's Ukraine campaign, providing advanced arms and economic lifelines. Korea Institute for National Unification's Hong Min predicts a symbolic rapport-building event remains feasible but cautions against expecting breakthroughs like substantive denuclearization negotiations, as "North Korea has time on its side and isn't as isolated as before," leveraging alliances to weather sanctions longer.
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