Lee cites progress after Trump talks

President Lee Jae-myung is expected to provide more details Friday about his meetings with U.S. President Donald Trump at the Group of Seven summit. Attention is focused on whether Lee will discuss possible U.S.-North Korea engagement after asking Trump to help advance a peaceful resolution to North Korea-related issues.

Lee and Trump spoke several times during the June 16-17 summit. While they did not hold a formal South Korea-U.S. bilateral meeting, they exchanged remarks during a reception for invited leaders and later sat together at the official dinner, where they discussed a range of issues, according to the presidential office.

Before returning home Thursday, Lee wrote on X that he had spent 90 minutes over dinner with Trump discussing peace on the Korean Peninsula and the South Korea-U.S. alliance, adding that the talks had yielded significant progress. A senior presidential office official told reporters Wednesday that Lee had urged Trump to play a constructive role as a "peacemaker" on Korean Peninsula issues. Trump replied that he would do everything possible to help advance those efforts, the official said. The South Korean government believes Trump could reengage with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un before the U.S. midterm elections in November, as inter-Korean relations remain deadlocked under Pyongyang's "hostile two-state" policy. Lee is also believed to have underscored the need to advance security cooperation, including discussions on nuclear-powered submarines that the two leaders agreed to pursue last year.

Lee also said on X that Trump gave him the pen he had been using for official signatures during a luncheon on June 17. Lee said Trump may have remembered receiving a pen from him during their first summit meeting. He added that the two discussed golf during the dinner and that Trump suggested playing a round with Lee and his wife. According to Lee, his wife jokingly secured the promise by linking fingers with Trump. When Trump brought up golf again after the luncheon, Lee said he realized he might need to start getting ready for the match.

South Korea did not join one of the eight statements issued at the G7 summit, a declaration on critical mineral supply chains. Signed only by G7 members and Australia, the document expressed concern about nonmarket policies and practices that undermine economic security and resilience, including arbitrary export restrictions and retaliatory measures involving critical minerals and related dual-use goods. The statement was widely seen as targeting China's controls on rare earth exports amid continuing trade tensions between Washington and Beijing.

The presidential office said South Korea supports G7 efforts to diversify critical mineral supplies and strengthen supply-chain resilience despite not signing the declaration. A presidential office official added that South Korea's supply-chain networks differ in some respects from those developed by European countries.


Kyu-Jin Shin newjin@donga.com