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Trump may pressure Lee on defense spending and troop

upkeep

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Lee aims to balance US ties without antagonizing China

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North Korea's Kim has ignored call for Trump talks

By Steve Holland, Hyunjoo Jin, David Brunnstrom and Trevor

Hunnicutt

WASHINGTON/SEOUL, Aug 25 (Reuters) - U.S. President

Donald Trump said on Monday he wanted to meet with North Korean

leader Kim Jong Un this year and that he was open to further

trade talks with South Korea even as he lobbed new criticisms at

the visiting Asian ally.

"I'd like to meet him this year," Trump told reporters in

the Oval Office as he welcomed South Korea's new President, Lee

Jae Myung, to the White House. "I look forward to meeting with

Kim Jong Un in the appropriate future."

Trump and Lee held their first meeting in tense

circumstances. The U.S. president lodged vague complaints about

a "Purge or Revolution" in South Korea on social media before

later walking the comments back as a likely "misunderstanding"

between the allies.

Despite clinching a trade deal in July that spared South Korean

exports harsher U.S. tariffs, the two sides continue to wrangle

over nuclear energy, military spending, and details of a trade

deal that included $350 billion in promised South Korean

investments in the United States.

North Korea's rhetoric has ramped up, with Kim pledging to speed

his nuclear program and condemning joint U.S.-South Korea

military drills. Over the weekend, Kim supervised the test

firing of new air defense systems.

Since Trump's January inauguration, Kim has ignored Trump's

repeated calls to revive the direct diplomacy he pursued during

his 2017-2021 term in office, which produced no deal to halt

North Korea's nuclear program.

In the Oval Office, Lee avoided the theatrical confrontations

that dominated a February visit by Ukrainian President Volodymyr

Zelenskiy and a May visit from South African President Cyril

Ramaphosa.

Lee, deploying a well-worn strategy by foreign visitors to

the Trump White House, talked golf and lavished praise on the

Republican president's interior decorating and peacemaking. He

told reporters earlier that he had read the president's 1987

memoir, "Trump: The Art of the Deal," to prepare.

As the leaders met, the liberal South Korean encouraged

Trump to engage with North Korea.

"I hope you can bring peace to the Korean Peninsula, the

only divided nation in the world, so that you can meet with Kim

Jong Un, build a Trump World [real-estate complex] in North

Korea so that I can play golf there, and so that you can truly

play a role as a world-historical peacemaker," Lee said,

speaking in Korean.

South Korea's economy relies heavily on the U.S., with

Washington underwriting its security with troops and nuclear

deterrence. Trump has called Seoul a "money machine" that takes

advantage of American military protection.

DIFFICULT ISSUES

Trump is pressing South Korea on the trade deal they already

reached and over a number of issues related to the countries'

military alliance.

He also said he would raise with Lee "intel" he had received

about investigations in that country that he said targeted

churches and a military base. The White House did not respond to

a request for more information.

Earlier this month, Seoul police raided Sarang Jeil Church,

headed by evangelical preacher Jun Kwang-hoon, who led protests

in support of ousted South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol.

The police were investigating pro-Yoon activists who stormed a

court in late January after it extended Yoon's detention over

his December attempt to declare martial law.

In July, prosecutors investigating Yoon's actions served a

search warrant on the Korean part of a military base jointly

operated with the United States. South Korean officials have

said that U.S. troops and materials were not subject to the

search.

Members of Korea's far-right movement, especially

evangelical Christians and supporters of Yoon, see the

ex-president as the subject of communist persecution.

Trump is expected to pressure Lee to commit to more spending

on defense, including toward the upkeep of 28,500 American

troops stationed in South Korea.

Asked if he would reduce U.S. troop numbers there to give

the U.S. more flexibility in the region, Trump told reporters,

"I don't want to say that now," but that maybe South Korea

should give the U.S. ownership of the "land where we have the

big fort," a possible reference to Camp Humphreys, a U.S. Army

garrison in South Korea.

Before the meeting, Lee told reporters it would be difficult

for Seoul to accept U.S. demands to adopt "flexibility" over

U.S. military stationed in South Korea, a reference to the issue

of using U.S. military for a wider range of operations,

including China-related threats.

Lee wants to chart a balanced path of cooperation with the

U.S., while avoiding antagonizing South Korea's top trade

partner, Beijing.

As he headed to the U.S., Lee sent a special delegation to

Beijing, which delivered a message calling for normalized

ties with China.

Lee also told reporters some officials in Washington were

calling for changes to the trade deal. The South Korean

president will highlight some of South Korea's expected U.S.

investments when he visits a shipyard in Philadelphia owned by

the country's Hanwha Group on Tuesday.

Trump is expected to attend the Asia-Pacific Economic

Cooperation summit in South Korea on October 30-November 1.