Presidential visit:
South Korea’s Moon Jae-in kicks off two days of meetings with President Trump.
WASHINGTON — South Korea’s new leader dined with President Trump at the White House on Thursday as part of an effort to reassure Washington that he will coordinate closely on dealing with the North Korean threat.
Trump said at the start of a formal dinner with South Korean President Moon Jae-in that they would discuss North Korea and trade over two days of meetings. The South Korean leader has sought to make clear to the U.S. that he is serious about dealing with his neighbor’s threat, despite having long advocated engagement with North Korea to address its nuclear weapons development.
“I know you’ve been discussing with our people some of the complexities of North Korea and trade and other things, and we’ll be discussing them all as we progress,” Trump told Moon in the State Dining Room. “And it could be very well late into the evening.”
Moon’s position could cause strains with Trump, who wants to step up economic pressure and further isolate the North diplomatically.
The U.S. and South Korea want to show they are on the same page as concern deepens over North Korea’s technological progress toward a nuclear-tipped missile that could strike the continental U.S., and its lack of interest in negotiations aimed at dismantling its atomic arsenal.
“We have a lot to work together for,” Republican Speaker Paul Ryan said as top House lawmakers sat down with Moon on Capitol Hill before the White House visit. “We have shared concerns such as threats posed to both our nations from North Korea.”
Moon began his fourday visit, his first overseas trip since taking office last month, with a powerful symbolic show of his personal commitment to the U.S.-South Korean alliance.
He laid a wreath Wednesday at a memorial to Marines who fought in one of the fiercest battles of the Korean War, where a rearguard U.S. action enabled a mass evacuation of Korean civilians, including Moon’s parents.
Moon pledged to stand firmly with Trump. “Together we will achieve the dismantlement of North Korea’s nuclear program, peace on the Korean Peninsula and eventually peace in Northeast Asia,” he said.