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Trump heads to South Korea to face trade talks and North Korean missiles
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Trump heads to South Korea to face trade talks and North Korean missiles
Oct 28, 2025 3:51 PM

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US president makes final stop on Asia trip

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Meetings with China's Xi, South Korea's Lee expected

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North Korea test-fires missiles ahead of Trump visit

By Trevor Hunnicutt and Jihoon Lee

TOKYO/GYEONGJU, South Korea, Oct 29 (Reuters) - U.S.

President Donald Trump heads to South Korea on Wednesday for the

final leg of his Asia trip, with high-stakes meetings expected

with Chinese President Xi Jinping and South Korea's Lee Jae

Myung.

After arriving on a flight from Tokyo, where he signed a

rare earths deal with Japan's new prime minister, Trump is due

to address a summit of CEOs and meet with Lee in Gyeongju, a

sleepy South Korean town filled with historic tombs and palaces.

At the top of the agenda will be the unresolved trade

agreement between the U.S. and South Korea.

The two allies announced a deal in August under which South

Korea would avoid the worst of the tariffs by agreeing to pump

$350 billion of new investments into the United States.

But talks over the structure of those investments have been

deadlocked, and officials from both sides have said Trump and

Lee are unlikely to finalise an agreement.

Trump has also pressed allies like South Korea to pay more

for defence, and South Korea has sought reforms to U.S.

immigration laws to allow for more workers to build factories

after a raid on a Hyundai Motor ( HYMLF ) battery plant in

Georgia.

NORTH KOREA TEST-FIRES MISSILES

Trump and Lee are likely to discuss efforts to engage North

Korea, which announced early on Wednesday that it had test-fired

a nuclear-capable cruise missile the day before.

"It is our responsible mission and duty to ceaselessly

toughen the nuclear combat posture," the North Korean official

who oversaw the test said, according to state news agency KCNA.

Last week, the North fired its first ballistic missile since

May.

Trump has made repeated calls for a meeting with leader Kim

Jong Un, including during this trip, but there has been no

public comment from Pyongyang. Kim has previously said he could

be open to talking if Washington stops pressing him to give up

nuclear weapons.

TRADE AGENDA

Filled with thousands of police and soldiers for security,

Gyeongju will host the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum

this week, but Trump will skip the leaders' summit scheduled for

Friday and Saturday.

"Trump dislikes large international gatherings and prefers

to have one-on-one meetings with key leaders," said Christopher

Padilla, senior adviser at advisory firm Brunswick Group in

Washington. "But while the U.S. steps back, most of the world

has continued to work through such institutions, finding them a

useful source of cooperation on international problems."

Instead, Trump will address the APEC CEO summit, hold

bilateral meetings with several countries' leaders, including

China's Xi, and have dinner with Lee.

The Xi-Trump meeting, expected on Thursday, is overshadowing

the rest of the week's busy diplomatic schedule.

Negotiators from the world's top two economies hashed out a

framework on Sunday for a deal to pause steeper American tariffs

and Chinese rare earths export controls, U.S. officials said.

The news sent Asian stocks soaring to record peaks.

Taiwan Foreign Minister Lin Chia-lung said on Tuesday that

he was not worried that Trump would "abandon" the island in his

meeting this week with Xi.

Since taking office in January, Trump has vacillated on his

position towards China-claimed Taiwan as he seeks to strike a

trade deal with Beijing. Trump says Xi has told him he will not

invade Taiwan while the Republican president is in office, but

Trump has yet to approve any new U.S. arms sales to Taipei.

FINAL STOP IN ASIA TRIP

Trump is arriving in Gyeongju after a whirlwind swing

through the region, among the hardest hit by his tariff policies

and increased U.S.-China competition.

In Malaysia, he announced a slew of trade agreements on the

sidelines of the 11-member Association of Southeast Asian

Nations summit and oversaw the signing of an expanded truce

between Thailand and Cambodia after a border conflict.

In Tokyo on Tuesday, Trump lavished praise on Japan's first

female Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, welcoming her pledge to

accelerate a military buildup and signing deals on trade and

rare earths.

Takaichi applauded Trump's push to resolve global conflicts,

vowing to nominate him for the Nobel Peace Prize, according to

Trump's spokeswoman, Karoline Leavitt.

The U.S. and Japan also released a list of projects in the

areas of energy, artificial intelligence and critical minerals

in which Japanese companies are eyeing investments of up to $400

billion.

Tokyo pledged to provide $550 billion of strategic U.S.

investments, loans and guarantees earlier this year as part of a

deal to win reprieve from Trump's punishing import tariffs.

Washington has pressed South Korea to make a similar

arrangement, but Seoul says it cannot afford to pay the $350

billion it pledged upfront. Instead, South Korea has offered a

mix of phased investments, loans and other measures.

On Tuesday, South Korean Foreign Minister Cho Hyun said a

last-minute concession by the United States could lead to a

deal.

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