South Korean president is heading to talks with Donald Trump on the forces, trade and Pyongyang

South Korean President Lee Jay Meongj Donald Trump will meet in the first face -to -face talks on America’s role in decades in the Korean Peninsula, amid speculation that the United States is preparing to expand its military existence.

The United States has 28,500 soldiers stationed in South Korea Under an alliance belonging to the Korean war. But Washington wants Seoul to take more than the nuclear nuclear armed nuclear core burden, as the United States converts its focus into the growing military force in China.

Lee will also be assigned to the White House summit on Monday to support a commercial deal at the eleventh hour announced last month, which was interpreted by the United States and Korean officials completely differently.

It represents a tremendous challenge to the former province’s ruler, which was He was elected in June.

“The scope of the complex trade and defense issues that the coalition needs to move, and the possibility of linking it to unexpected ways, making this a very difficult task,” said Christopher Green, chief adviser to the International Crisis Group.

“If he can give his counterpart some fast food, he can extinguish and get out of Washington with his reputation, then this will be calculated as a great achievement.”

Trump never met me, although they used their joint experience Assassination attempts to surviveAccording to the people who were informed of a phone call after the South Korean elections.

Its administration is also launched from the proposals for investments and partnerships in American manufacturing, starting from chips and shipbuilding to defense and civil nuclear energy. Korean officials hope to help me to consolidate the first The commercial deal In principle, he agreed one day before Trump’s deadline August 1.

But officials admit that many at the US National Security Corporation are concerned about the return of the head of the left in Seoul.

He called me to improve relations with China and accused his right -wing predecessor Yun Suk Yol – who was enlisted in Washington Concentration with Japan And he took a more honest line towards China – to pursue a “unnecessary hostile” policy towards Beijing.

As the opposition leader, he also condemned me joint marine exercises for South Korea with the United States and Japan in 2022 as a “disaster”, which raised concerns in Washington that his administration could have the efforts of the United States to mobilize Asian allies to contain China.

He has ever sought to stay away from his image as a thermal image. Japanese Prime Minister Shigro Ishiba also met in Tokyo on Saturday, on his way to the United States.

But analysts said that his record may hold these efforts.

Gordon Zhang, the American conservative commentator, wrote this month in the hill that “the anti -American president of South Korea” could endanger “the future of the relations of the treaty between Washington and torrents.”

“Getting the perception that I have anti -America and that the pro -religious supporter is one of the main goals of his visit,” said Kim Jongsop, an older research colleague at the Segong Institute to think about Seoul.

Green said that the mission of me will be “presenting himself as reasonable, non -ideological and pro -wrapping, and not hostile to Japan.”

However, this position is likely to be tested through an American batch of “updating” the coalition by encouraging Seoul to make a greater contribution and approval of American forces in South Korea, which focuses more on China.

General Kazavier Bronson, the American commander of the South Korean forces, said at a press conference to reporters this month that the coalition was not limited to deterring only one country.

He also said that the role of the American forces in the peninsula should be evaluated in terms of capabilities instead of the numbers of forces, which is feeding on speculation that the Trump administration is planning to reduce or redirect its military presence in Korea.

Kim, the defense minister in a previous left -wing government in Seoul, said that the LEE administration “was ready to actively adopt American expectations that South Korea assumed a leadership role in defending the Korean Peninsula”, including by raising defense spending and taking more responsibility for driving within the alliance.

But he added that Seoul was “uncomfortable” about the possibility of American forces in Korea “turning its focus towards China.”

Seoul Won1.52tn ($ 1.19 billion) is already expected to pay 8.3 percent over 2025, according to a deal signed the day before the Trump election last year. During his first term, Trump paid South Korea to bear more costs of American forces.

On Friday, South Korean National Security Adviser Wi -Song Lak told reporters that the defensive Seoul spending “will increase due to the (coalition) update.” Military spending is currently 2.3 percent of South Korea’s GDP.

Some senior Korean officials expressed their optimism that Lee and Trump could find a common ground for North Korea. Both leaders have expressed their desire Reviving diplomatic participation With Pyongyang.

He made me a valid gesture, and he commanded it Military to stop broadcasting Through the border between the Koreans and the relationship of opponents with turbulent marriage needs to be counted.

But Green warned that Seoul was following a contradictory policy, confirming to the United States that it could bear more security for security while trying to attract Pyongyang simultaneously.

“It is completely impossible, and the North Koreans can see through it,” he said, noting that the sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un Kim Yu Jong this week was rejected as a “mysterious poet” that cannot be trusted as a diplomatic partner.

On Sunday, the North Korean government media said that the country had tested two “new air defense missiles” that could target the drones attacks and cruise missiles, as it was the annual military training in South Korea.

He said: “Pyongyang has long realized that even the left -wing South Korean governments will always end priority to its alliance with the United States for peace efforts with North Korea,” he said. “Lee will do the same.”