Lee Asks Trump to Revive North Korea Talks at UN — SkimNews
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- Lee Jae-myung asked Trump in a 30-minute unannounced meeting at the UN General Assembly on September 22 to help restart US-North Korea talks, with the Blue House saying Trump reaffirmed his willingness to engage Kim Jong Un and the two agreed to act as "peacemakers and pacemakers."
- Kim Yo Jong denied any direct contact with the US, calling Washington's hostile policy unchanged despite Trump's claim that Kim responded positively to dialogue overtures in August.
- North Korean Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui declared on September 24 that her country's will to keep nuclear weapons "through all ages" was "irreversible," two days after the US, South Korea, and Japan jointly urged Pyongyang to return to talks.
- Trump has signaled he hopes to meet Kim Jong Un before year-end, potentially at the APEC summit in Shenzhen this November, and scaled back a major joint US-South Korea military exercise in August as a goodwill gesture.
- North Korea tested a new weapon on September 20, launching two short-range ballistic missiles that the South Korean military assessed at 450 and 600 km flight distances — though North Korean-released photos showed a flight distance of 908.2 km.
- In his UNGA address, Lee outlined a denuclearization sequence — halt further advances, then medium-term reductions, ultimately aiming for a nuclear-free Korean Peninsula — and pledged to lay groundwork for formally ending the Korean War.
- Beyond North Korea, Lee and Trump discussed nuclear-powered submarines, wartime operational control transfer, uranium enrichment rights, and shipbuilding cooperation; Seoul confirmed a $22.3 billion Texas gas-fired power plant as the first project under a $200 billion strategic investment package within a broader $350 billion pledge ($150 billion earmarked for shipbuilding).
Why it matters: Lee is positioning himself as the diplomatic bridge between Washington and Pyongyang while quietly locking in alliance upgrades — nuclear-powered submarines, wartime operational control transfer, and a confirmed $22.3 billion Texas gas-fired power plant as the opening tranche of Seoul's $350 billion US investment commitment. But Kim Yo Jong's public denial of contact and Choe Son Hui's "irreversible" nuclear declaration suggest any Trump-Kim photo op before a possible APEC meet-up would likely produce atmospherics, not substance — leaving Lee's "pacemaker" role exposed if Pyongyang refuses to reciprocate.
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