Onlookers braced for another tense, confrontational meeting in the Oval Office between President Donald Trump and another world leader when, Monday morning, Trump posted to Truth Social suggesting he was unhappy with “what is going on” in South Korea.
Instead, the meeting before the media proceeded smoothly, despite Trump saying there would be “very serious discussions” happening during his later private meeting with the South Korean president.
“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!!!” Trump wrote on social media.
He later clarified that he was referring to “vicious raids on churches by the new government in South Korea, that they even went into our military base and got information,” Trump said, according to reports.
South Korean President Lee Jae Myung was elected to office in a snap election on June 3, after the impeachment of the former president. Lee is a member of the left-leaning Democratic Party of South Korea and was reportedly facing multiple criminal charges before securing office. Sitting presidents in South Korea cannot be prosecuted for most criminal charges, however, so courts have postponed his trials for a later time.
The social media post didn’t come up until about 40 minutes into the livestreamed Oval Office meeting, and Trump at first didn’t appear to want to talk about it then – though he did allude at one point to “some very serious discussions about different things, including trade” that would be happening. When a reporter asked Trump directly about the post, he said he and Lee would talk about it later but then offered Lee a chance to comment.
“I could ask you now, if you want,” Trump said, turning to the South Korean leader. “If you’d like [to respond], it didn’t sound to me like South Korea.”
Lee attributed the events in question to fact-finding missions directed by a National Assembly-appointed special prosecutor who he said wasn’t under his control. The missions are part of investigations surrounding the “soft coup” led by the former president.
Lee attempted to explain what Trump had heard about an American military base.
“I would like to explain… We did not conduct a search and seizure of American bases but they looked into the chain of command and the control system of the Korean military,” Lee said, and added that he would “be happy” to talk more about it in their private meeting.
“I am sure it’s a misunderstanding, but you know, there is a rumor going around about churches, raiding churches, so we’ll talk. I’m sure that’s going to be worked out fine,” Trump concluded.
The press-conference-style meeting mostly centered around economic development, trade relations and Trump leveraging his relationship with Communist North Korean leader Kim Jung Un to achieve “peace on the Korean peninsula.”
Lee expressed a desire to expand South Korean-U.S. economic relations.
“Korea was able to attain economic growth and development through our ironclad alliance, and going forward, I hope to develop our alliance into a future-oriented alliance that encompasses areas not only committed to security, but also the economy and science and technology,” Lee said.
Trump spoke about partnering with South Korea to rebuild America’s shipbuilding industry and providing them with oil and gas.
“We’re going to get along great, because we, you know, we really sort of need each other… We love their ships. We love a lot of the things that they make, and they love what we have. We’re dealing with them on Alaska, having to do with the oil they need. You need oil, and we have it,” Trump said.
He also noted that the country wanted to negotiate its trade deal with the U.S.
“That’s OK, I don’t mind that. That doesn’t mean that they’re going to get anything, but I don’t mind,” he said.
Lee asked Trump to meet again with Kim, as he did during his first term, and Trump said he would, touting his “very good relationship” with Kim.
“I will do that and we’ll have talks,” Trump said. “We think we can do something in that regard, with respect to North and South and I think you are much more prone to doing that than other leaders that I’ve been working with from South Korea, and we’ll work on that. I think it’s very good to work on that.”
