South Korean President Lee Jae-myung is set to meet United States President Donald Trump for the first time in a high-stakes visit to Washington, DC.
The meeting comes after a July trade deal in which Washington agreed to cut its reciprocal tariff on South Korea to 15 percent from an initially proposed 25 percent.
The discussion will focus on ironing out details of the unwritten July trade deal, which involves South Korea agreeing to buy $100 billion worth of US energy and invest $350 billion in the US economy.
Lee will lead a delegation formed by the heads of South Korean top conglomerates, including Samsung Electronics, SK Group, Hyundai Motor, and LG Group.
The four companies alone are already known to contribute approximately 126 trillion won ($91.2 billion) in direct investments to the US.
Choi Yoon-jung, a principal research fellow at the Sejong Institute in Seoul, emphasized the importance of Lee being deliberate and direct with Trump in the talks, given South Korea’s tough predicament in terms of trade with the US compared to the past.
“It will be important for President Lee to explain how investments will be designed to serve US national interests and to remind Trump that the two nations are close trading partners who went through large ordeals to realise their Free Trade Agreement over two decades ago,” Choi told newsmen.
Mason Richey, a professor of international politics at the Hankuk University of Foreign Studies (HUFS), said the direction of the talks on investments is likely to be “unpredictable”.
“Not only are the current 15 percent tariffs overwhelmingly likely to stay on, but the investment part of the deal is likely to remain unclear and subject to unpredictable adjustment by the White House,” Richey told newsmen.
Analysts say shipbuilding is one area where Trump clearly desires to have South Korea as a key partner to play catch-up to China’s naval fleet.
Officials in Seoul have previously stated that a key component of the tariff deal with Washington would include a partnership worth about $150 billion to assist in rebuilding the US shipbuilding industry.
Another major discussion point will be Seoul and Washington’s defence posture regarding the growing threats from North Korea, as well as the development of a strategic alliance to address the changing international security and economic environment.
“The pressures for the role of US forces on the Korean Peninsula to evolve has been growing for years,” Jenny Town, the director of the Washington, DC-based research programme 38 North, told newsmen.
“The Trump administration is focused on how to maximise resources for US interests and priorities, so it is likely that some changes will be made during this term,” Town said. “How drastic or dramatic those changes will depend on a number of factors, including the state of the US domestic political infrastructure that provides checks and balances to executive decisions,” she added.
A US Senate defence policy bill for fiscal year 2026 includes a ban on the use of funds to reduce the number of US Forces Korea (USFK) troops to below the current level of 28,500 service members.
Financial negotiations between Trump and Lee may also tip into security details, as the US president has regularly called for South Korea to pay more for the US troops stationed on its soil.
Trump has said that he wants defence spending to reach closer to 5 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) for all US allies.
Today, South Korea’s defence budget is at 3.5 percent of GDP. Transfer of wartime operational command – referring to the transfer of control of South Korean forces during wartime from the US to South Korea – has long been a point of discussion between Seoul and Washington.
The Trump-Lee meeting also comes after North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s powerful sister recently dismissed Washington and Seoul’s stated desires to restart diplomacy aimed at defusing Pyongyang’s nuclear programme.
Kim Yo Jong said that Seoul could never be a “diplomatic partner” with Pyongyang. For Town, there were “interesting nuances” in Kim Yo Jong’s statements. “While rejecting any kind of denuclearisation narrative as the basis of negotiations, her statements did create an opening for the US to engage North Korea to improve overall relations,” Town said.