Copyright thediplomat
South Korean President Lee Jae-myung held a second summit meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump on October 29 on the sidelines of the APEC Summit in Gyeongju, South Korea. The summit came two months after they met at the White House for their first summit since Lee assumed the presidency in June. During the summit today, Lee asked Trump to allow South Korea to be supplied with fuel for nuclear-powered submarines – one of Seoul’s key initiatives to strengthen its military capabilities. “We are not proposing to build a submarine equipped with nuclear weapons,” Lee said during his address to kick-off the summit meeting. “The diving capability of our conventional diesel submarines is limited, which restricts our ability to track North Korean or Chinese submarines,” he added. Lee also said the burden of the U.S. forces for their defense activities on the Korean Peninsula would significantly be reduced should the U.S. allow the fuel supply for South Korea. South Korea has been eyeing its own nuclear-powered submarine since the United States entered a deal to provide Australia with the technology under the AUKUS framework. Under AUKUS, the U.S. will build Australia’s first nuclear-powered subs, which has raised some concerns about the ability to complete projects for the U.S. Navy as well. By contrast, Lee pointed out that South Korea could build nuclear-powered submarines itself, using indigenous technology, if the United States agreed to allow the supply of nuclear fuel. The latest summit was also crucial for Seoul to lock in its trade deal with the United States. Tariff negotiations have been ongoing even though the two sides had reached a big-picture agreement months ago, ahead of Lee’s visit to the United States. In exchange for a lower tariff rate, South Korea had pledged to provide $350 billion in investment in U.S. projects, but there were frictions over the form that would take. Trump had demanded that South Korea simply hand over the cash, which Lee made clear was impossible. A raid on one of the largest South Korean investments in the United States by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents soon after the first Lee-Trump summit further soured public opinion in South Korea. News of South Korean nationals – highly skilled workers brought to Georgia to get a battery cell plant up and running – being shackled and kept in squalid detention centers stoked outrage. As Lee and Trump did not hold a joint press conference this time, many assumed that their talks did not go well. Hours after their summit, however, Seoul announced that agreement had been reached on specific details in the tariff negotiations. According to Kim Yong-beom, the national policy director for the South Korean Presidential Office, the $350 billion financial investment in the U.S. is comprised of $200 billion in cash investment and $150 billion for cooperation in the shipbuilding industry. He also added that the two sides agreed to set an annual investment ceiling of $20 billion – the amount of the investment Seoul can tolerate while minimizing the impact on the market. In accordance with this agreement, the tariff on automobiles imposed by the U.S. on South Korea will be lowered from 25 percent to 15 percent. In the next three days, as the APEC summit enters full swing, Lee will be having sideline meetings with Chinese leader Xi Jinping and Japan’s new prime minister, Takaichi Sanae. Trump will also meet Xi on Thursday. In the past few days, Trump had also repeatedly mentioned his willingness to meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un during his visit to South Korea. As of writing, however, Pyongyang seems to have not responded to Washington’s offers. Regardless, Lee praised Trump’s moves as a peacemaker in conflict areas, saying that the U.S. president’s efforts to have a meeting with Kim could create a considerable push toward peace on the Korean Peninsula. “I believe this will also become another seed that will be the catalyst for creating a huge wave of peace on the Korean Peninsula,” Lee said. Ahead of his meeting with Lee, Trump was given the Grand Order of Mugunghwa, South Korea's highest national decoration, “to honor President Trump’s achievements in opening dialogue for peace on the Korean Peninsula six years ago and to express gratitude in advance for the peace and prosperity he will bring to the peninsula,” South Korea’s presidential office said. Trump is the only U.S. president to receive the order thus far.
