President Trump said the U.S. trade deal with South Korea will remain in place, with 15% tariffs on South Korean goods, after meeting Monday at the White House with President Lee Jae-myung in talks that also covered a shipbuilding deal, a potential summit with North Korea and the cost of U.S. troops stationed on the peninsula.
In their first meeting, Mr. Lee asked Mr. Trump to seek a meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, and Mr. Trump agreed.
“We can do big progress with North Korea,” Mr. Trump said.
They were also on the same page on other issues, although Mr. Trump told reporters later that the level of U.S. tariffs on South Korea won’t change.
“I think we have a deal done … they’re going to make the deal that we agreed to make,” Mr. Trump said after Mr. Lee departed. “They had some problems with it, but we stuck to our guns. He’s a very good guy, very good representative for South Korea. It’s a very big trade deal. It’s the biggest deal they’ve ever made by far, but it’s one of the biggest deals ever made.”
The two sides had reached agreement in late July on the 15% tariff rate for South Korean exports, allowing Seoul a break from the 25% tariff rate that Mr. Trump initially proposed.
Upon his arrival, Mr. Lee sought to charm Mr. Trump by hailing recent stock-market gains, the gold finishes added to the Oval Office and his peacekeeping efforts. He even joked that Mr. Trump could build a Trump Tower in North Korea if peace between the nations is achieved.
“We’ve known each other and gotten along very well,” Mr. Trump said. “It’s a great honor to be with you and congratulations on your election. That was a big one and we’re with you 100%.”
Mr. Trump had temporarily thrown the tenor of the meeting into doubt before it began, questioning on social media about South Korea’s government conducting raids on churches and whether a “purge or revolution” was taking place. Publicly, Mr. Lee did not address those concerns at the White House.
Mr. Lee and Mr. Trump did agree that the U.S. commander-in-chief should meet with Mr. Kim in an effort to bring peace to the peninsula. Mr. Trump held several with Mr. Kim in his first term in an effort to compel Pyongyang to abandon its nuclear weapons program.
The South Korean president said Mr. Trump’s relationship with Mr. Kim is good for relations and that a meeting could be “a sign” that North Korea needs to resume dialogue.
“I hope you will usher in a new era of peace on the Korean peninsula,” Mr. Lee told his U.S. counterpart.
Mr. Trump said he would meet with Mr. Kim, vowing to improve relations between the two Koreas and Washington. He told reporters that the meeting will be held “in the appropriate future.”
Both leaders also acknowledged a burgeoning shipbuilding agreement, with Mr. Trump pledging to buy ships from South Korea and Mr. Lee acknowledging the U.S. president’s desire to have Korean shipbuilding companies hiring workers in America.
The shipbuilding deal is a key part of the last-minute trade deal South Korea struck last month with Mr. Trump, who wants to revitalize U.S. shipbuilding for both economic and national security reasons. Talks have focused on hammering out the details of South Korea’s $350 million investment fund for U.S. industries, centered around shipbuilding.
Decades of industry decline has left the U.S. responsible for less than 1% of the global shipbuilding sector, compared with 50% for China, 30% for South Korea and 10% for Japan. South Korea’s knowledge and equipment could help push the U.S. back to the forefront.
Mr. Lee struck the agreement as part of his trade deal with Mr. Trump to spare his country from the Trump administration’s highest tariffs, after pledging to invest hundreds of billions of dollars in the U.S.
