Trump had already hit the North Korean Kim three times in his first term. He knows the ruler very well – “better than almost everyone else, except his sister,” he said on Monday. “I’m happy to see him. He was very good for me.”
The US President had repeatedly praised his “great relationship” to Kim in the past, even though North Korea is largely isolated internationally because of its nuclear weapons and rocket program. North Korea is also an important supporter in Russia in the war of attack against Ukraine: Pyongyang provides Moscow soldiers and weapons.
Shortly after his statements about Kim, Trump received the South Korean President Lee in the White House – and he went straight to the topic of North Korea: “I look forward to your meeting with the chairman Kim Jong Un, the construction of a Trump Tower in North Korea and golf parts,” said Lee. At the same time, the South Korean flattered Trump and said that the US President was “not a peace keeper, but a peace pent”.
In the conversation, Trump dealt with the US military presence in South Korea. He called for a consideration for the 28,500 US soldiers stationed in the country.
“We spent a lot of money on building a base,” said Trump. “South Korea has made a contribution, but I would like to see whether we can get rid of the lease and receive the country where we have a huge military base.” Such a proposal should encounter resistance from Lee’s social liberal party.
Trump had caused confusion even before the meeting when he accused the Asian country – a historical ally of the United States – a “political cleaning”. “What is happening in South Korea?” wrote Trump on his online platform Truth Social. “It looks like a political cleaning or a revolution. Under these circumstances, we cannot do business there.”
Trump gave no information about what he referred to with his accusations. Maybe he was concerned with an arrest warrant issued on Sunday against the former South Korean Prime Minister Han Duck Soo. Han is accused of having helped ex-President Yoon Suk Yeol to have the proclamation of war law last December.
At his meeting with Yoons in June, however, Trump wiped his own statements about “political cleansing” in the White House. “I am sure that this is a misunderstanding,” said the US President. It “circulates”.
Yoon had plunged South Korea into a deep political crisis with the proclamation of war law. The parliament in Seoul then voted for Yoons’s deduction, which the South Korean constitutional court confirmed in early April. Yoon – a right -wing politician with close connections to the USA – had justified the drastic measure with a budget dispute.
Trump announced during the joint appearance with Lee ahead of journalists that he would “probably or shortly afterwards” travel to China. The tensions between the two largest economies in the world had recently been somewhat. Trump threatened to do tariffs again on Monday, should China not remove its export restrictions on rare earths.
