South Korean President Lee Jae Myung said his staff feared they might face a 'Zelenskyy Moment' during their first meeting with US President Donald Trump at the White House, after Trump questioned South Korea's democracy on social media earlier in the day.
This was reported by Politico.
However, Lee said his meeting with Trump was "beyond my expectations." He said he understood Trump better, was encouraged and that their meeting lasted longer than planned.
South Korea's new president, elected in June, said before meeting Trump that he was confident that he "would not face that kind of a situation" that happened with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy earlier this year, when Trump and Vice President J.D. Vance criticized the Ukrainian leader live from the Oval Office.
"That's because I had read President Trump's book, 'The Art of the Deal,'" Lee said in remarks at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
President Donald J. Trump and President of South Korea Lee Jae-myung @Jaemyung_Lee. 🇺🇸🤝🇰🇷 pic.twitter.com/sY1bzkOlrC
— The White House (@WhiteHouse) August 25, 2025
Trump heightened the drama of the meeting by posting a post on the Truth Social network the day before asking: "WHAT IS GOING ON IN SOUTH KOREA? Seems like a Purge or Revolution. We can't have that and do business there. I am seeing the new President today at the White House. Thank you for your attention to this matter!!!"
Screenshot of the message
Trump then told reporters that he had "heard bad things" about the domestic political situation.
But Lee said the two leaders focused their conversation on strengthening economic ties between the United States and South Korea, as well as on how to "modernize our bilateral alliance to be more reciprocal and future-oriented in line with the changing security landscape."
However, he did not provide details on the verbal trade deal he and Trump reached last month that places a 15% tariff on the country's goods in exchange for commitments to invest more than USD 350 billion and purchase an additional USD 100 billion in energy.
On Monday, Trump said in the Oval Office that South Korea was hoping to renegotiate some of the terms of the trade deal. But later that day, Trump said the United States would not budge.
"They had some problems with it, but we stuck to our guns. We are going to, they're going to make the deal that they agreed to make," Trump told reporters.
Also, during the day, there was news of South Korean companies investing in the United States. Amazon announced that it would work with South Korean companies to help launch small nuclear reactors across the country, along with startup X-energy, in what the companies said would be a USD 50 billion investment. And Boeing and GE Aerospace signed a USD 50 billion deal with Korean Air to buy 103 Boeing planes.
The South Korean president is reportedly planning a visit on Tuesday to a Philadelphia shipyard that a South Korean company acquired in December. It's one of the sectors where the Trump administration is counting on South Korean investment to help revive a US industry that has lagged far behind global standards.
"The K-shipbuilding industry, equipped with the world's strongest capabilities, will bring about a renaissance of the U.S. shipbuilding industry and create a new historic turning point for mutual prosperity," Lee said Monday night.
Lee also stressed the importance of the US-South Korea military alliance in countering what he called the growing threat of nuclear weapons from North Korea. Lee said Seoul had no intention of developing its own nuclear deterrent, but warned that Pyongyang's pursuit of intercontinental ballistic missiles equipped with nuclear warheads posed a growing international threat.
At the same time, Lee did not back down on his country's relationship with China, avoiding any mention of severing ties with the world's second-largest economy and Asia's biggest geopolitical player.
"Korea is currently kind of distanced from America's export controls and supply chain controls regarding China. But because we are geographically very closely located to China, we are maintaining our relationship with China," Lee said.
As the Ukrainian News agency earlier reported, during the last meeting, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy met with US President Donald Trump on the doorstep of the White House, where Trump said he loved Ukrainians.
Zelenskyy and Trump exchanged gifts during their meeting at the White House on August 18.
According to The Wall Street Journal, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy thanked US President Donald Trump more than 10 times during their meeting at the White House on August 18.
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