Seoul reporter
BBC News, Singapore
A true social position fell due to meeting US President Donald Trump a few hours earlier from South Korean President Lee J. Mayung.
“What’s going on in South Korea?” Trump wrote, pointing to a “parj or revolution” – many people had seen as a reference to former President Yun Suk Yeol’s prosecution for their unsuccessful efforts to set up martial law last December.
But Lee turned the attraction and whatever happened to Volodimir Zelancesi of Ukraine or South Africa’s Cyril Ramfosa, it was repetitive.
But at the meeting, Trump dominated North Korea’s constant contexts and despite Lee’s flattery, not much happened through reducing trade and defense issues. There are three main takeaets here.
Lee’s flattery strategy worked
Lee’s team was nervous about this meeting, and they had a good reason: Trump is historically wary of South Korea, yet it is an American ally. In the past, he has accused thousands of American troops of freeliding which is posted on the peninsula helping in defense against North Korea. He has also criticized Seoul’s defense spending and its trade surplus with the US.
Lee, a leftist politician, is a reputation in Washington who plays with the worst fear of Trump. He suspected the US alliance and said he wanted to develop a strong relationship with China. He is depicted as “anti -American” by some American conservative commentators.
Lee’s team was worried that he could dress down to an oval office and would have to defend himself against the principles of right -wing conspiracy.
In the hours before the meeting, the truth social post must have scared him. Trump’s inauspicious message appeared to be mentioned after South Korea’s Marshal Law Crisis last December, and the efforts that Mr. Lee’s government and prosecutor are making are being evicted President Yun Suk Yeol, his wife and former members of his government to investigate.
It is far and wide in South Korea, and even in America, there is a printing against something.
It was a nightmare landscape for South Korean officials – that Mr. Lee could be forced to defend himself against the principles of right -wing conspiracy. But when the meeting arrived, Mr. Trump raised the issue, just to brush it quickly as a possible misunderstanding.
But Lee’s flattery strategy worked clearly. He first performed a miracle in the “Bright and Beautiful” new look of the Oval Office, then imprisoned praised the personal coordination that the US President has created with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
“The only person who can progress, you are Mr. President”, said Mr. Lee. “If you become a peacemaker, I will help you by becoming a pacemaker.”
Lee also joked about making a trump tower in North Korea and playing golf there.
If it seems slightly flying, it was South Korea’s strategy for this high-day meeting, which was aimed at covering business, the role of American soldiers in South Korea and how much Seoul spends on its defense.
Lee’s team’s number one goal was to ensure that he left the oval office on Trump’s good side.
Later, when a reporter was asked about his earlier comments while raiding the churches on South Korean officials, Trump said he had heard about it through “Intel”, but “I didn’t think like” South Korea “.
Trump said that “the rumor” was a “misunderstanding”. When Lee said that the officials were investigating the claim, Trump said that he is sure he would “work out”.
It seemed that Lee had avoided a Zelanceci moment in the White House – and his team could breathe a sigh of relief.
Kim Jong An Loom Big
At his first meeting to President Trump, sitting next to the South Korean leader, it may seem strange to talk about how well Kim Jong Un meets the enemy of the South, and how keen he is to meet him again.
But this is actually one of these two areas of these two leaders.
South Korea’s relatively new President Lee J. Mayung is taking a new approach to North Korea compared to his predecessor, which Kim Jong Un was accused.
This is really, Lee who started a conversation about Kim Jong Un, praised President Trump for personal coordination with the North Korean leader, and asked him to act as a “peacemaker” on the Korean peninsula.
Lee wants to talk to Kim, to establish a peaceful relationship between the north and the south, but he knows that Trump has a better chance than doing so.
Trump, who met Kim three times in his first term, often brings dictator. Trump said the pair “fell in love”, exchange of letters.
Trump said on Monday, “I spent a lot of free time with him, talking about things that we are probably not going to talk about.” “I meet him really well.”
“I am eager to meet with Kim Jong Un in the appropriate future,” said Trump.
The question is whether Kim Jong would like to talk to both of them.
North Korea repeatedly dismissed Lee’s efforts to talk, and ignored the US efforts to resume the dialogue. It has not closed the door to talk to Trump, but suggested that it will be on a much different conditions than before – on the basis that North Korea will not leave its nuclear weapons.
This is now something should try to navigate Seoul and Washington.
Business, defense issues unresolved
Lee had high trade and defense on the agenda for a trip to the White House. But no concrete agreements were made.
Seoul managed to interact up to 15%of the US Tariff on South Korean goods, when Trump endangs up to 25%rates. This came when Seoul agreed to invest $ 350BN (£ 264.1bn) in the US – $ 150BN which would help in the creation of America.
South Korea has a prosperous shipbuilding industry, which builds more ships than any other country in the world other than China, at a time when American ship construction and its Navy decline.
And just hours after Lee’s White House meeting, Korean Air announced that it would buy 103 Boeing aircraft.
But the tariff on South Korean goods will never be reduced soon. “I think we have a deal” on business, Trump told reporters after the meeting, without providing more details. “He had some problems with it, but we clung to our guns.”
The meeting also reduced to shifting other prickly issues of bilateral relations.
On Monday, Trump ignored a question about withdrawing American troops from South Korea – an idea that the White House has allegedly played with Trump as Trump repeatedly accused South Korea of ​​taking advantage of American security and not making adequate payments for defense.
In addition, on Monday, Trump thought of giving a piece of land residence Osan Air Base to the US to the US south of Seoul jointly operated by the US and South Korea.
But some assurance that Lee got from Trump, at least, was an economic alliance between his countries. The US and South Korea “need each other” for trade, Trump asked reporters in Lee’s presence.
“We love what they do, we love their product, we love their ships, we love a lot of things,” he said. Meanwhile, South Korea needs oil and gas, and America will trade with them, he said.