Lee Urges Trump to Lead North Korea Diplomacy at G-7
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- Lee Jae Myung asked Trump to lead peaceful resolution of North Korea tensions during a brief exchange at the G-7 group photo on June 16, citing Trump's Middle East peacemaking as a model.
- Trump initiated the conversation by asking Lee about the current state of relations with North Korea and responded that he would work to address the issue, per presidential spokeswoman Kang Yu-jung.
- Trump and Kim Jong Un held three meetings in Trump's first term — Singapore (2018), Hanoi (2019), and the DMZ (2019), where Trump became the first sitting US president to enter North Korea — before the diplomacy collapsed after Hanoi failed on denuclearization and sanctions.
- Trump has repeatedly signaled renewed interest, saying in August 2025 he looked forward to seeing Kim "in the appropriate future" and posting a captionless photo of himself with Kim on Truth Social the week before the G-7.
Why it matters: Lee is publicly courting Trump's personal leader-to-leader diplomacy as Seoul's preferred channel, betting that direct engagement can succeed where the first Trump-Kim round collapsed after Hanoi 2019 failed to agree on dismantling North Korea's nuclear program. Trump has already been signaling willingness — repeated public statements and a Truth Social Kim photo — making a renewed track plausible, though no concrete next step was announced at the G-7 exchange.
