South Korea asks Trump to play peacemaker with North Korea, minister says
Seoul urges U.S. leadership to restart diplomacy as tensions on the peninsula persist; Trump signals openness, but White House comment is not immediately available
South Korea’s government says President Lee Jae Myung has urged President Donald Trump to become a peacemaker and use his leadership to bring North Korea back to talks aimed at reducing military tensions on the Korean Peninsula. Foreign Minister Cho Hyun said in an interview with The Associated Press on Friday that Trump welcomed the request and expressed a willingness to engage with North Korea again. There was no immediate word from the White House.
Cho noted that Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un met three times while North Korea pursued a nuclear weapons stockpile, with two summits held in Singapore in June 2018 and in Hanoi in February 2019. A third meeting that year at the border between the Koreas failed to salvage their nuclear talks, and Kim has since shunned diplomacy with the United States and South Korea. “It would be fantastic if they met with each other in the near future,” Cho said. “And President Lee Jae Myung made it clear to President Trump that he will not be sitting in the driver’s seat. He asked president Trump to become a peacemaker, and he relegated himself to become a pacemaker. We don’t mind. On the contrary, we want president Trump to exercise his leadership to pull North Korea to dialogue table.”
Can a meeting happen? Since Trump returned to power in January, he has repeatedly expressed hope of restarting talks with Kim. The North Korean leader said Monday he still has “good memories” of Trump but urged the United States to drop its demand that the North surrender its nuclear arms as a precondition for resuming long-stalled diplomacy. Start your day with all you need to know Morning Report delivers the latest news, videos, photos and more. Thanks for signing up! Trump is expected to visit South Korea next month to attend the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit, which has prompted media speculation that he might meet Kim again at the border. Trump is also expected to meet with Chinese leader Xi Jinping during that meeting. The foreign minister said Lee asked Trump to take the lead because the world has changed and become “much more precarious” since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022.
“Accordingly, we are equally worried about any possible military skirmish on the Korean Peninsula,” Cho said. “So we are compelled to explore dialogues with North Korea to reduce the military tension, and at least we want to have a hotline.” He stressed that denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula “is the imperative – we cannot let it go.”
Tensions on the Korean Peninsula have persisted into Friday. Early in the day, South Korea’s military said it fired warning shots to drive away a North Korean merchant ship that briefly crossed the disputed western sea boundary between the Koreas, underscoring the fragile state of inter-Korean ties as diplomacy remains unsettled.
Since becoming foreign minister, Cho has been explaining to neighboring countries that the new government intends to pursue peace on the Korean Peninsula and in northeast Asia. He said Seoul wants to engage China and had a “very good constructive meeting” with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, but stressed that there are limits. Cho referred to China’s installation of something in the Yellow Sea that infringes on South Korea’s sovereignty and said it must be removed; otherwise Seoul would consider appropriate measures.
Cho flew to Washington shortly after a large-scale raid by U.S. immigration officers at a Hyundai plant in southeast Georgia detained 475 people, the majority of them South Koreans. Cho said Trump intervened and wanted them to remain, but they were chained and handcuffed and his primary objective was to get them back home. Cho added that discussions with Secretary of State Marco Rubio afterward had a silver lining because visa issues for South Korean workers could be addressed and resolved.
Lee, who heads the left-leaning Democratic Party, won a snap election in June after the impeachment of former President Yoon Suk Yeol for his short-lived imposition of martial law in December. Cho, a career diplomat and former U.N. ambassador, took office as foreign minister on July 19. In Lee’s remarks to the United Nations General Assembly this week, he said South Korea has rejoined the international community as a normal state and has demonstrated its commitment to democracy. Cho said he feels “a bit uncomfortable” comparing the current government to the previous one, given the shift after Yoon’s election, but emphasized that the new government’s approach is geared toward peace and stability in the region. The foreign minister also stressed that Seoul remains committed to dialogue with neighboring countries, including China and Japan, and to building confidence through practical steps such as a military hotline and crisis management channels.
Peace remains the priority, Cho said, signaling that Seoul intends to keep diplomacy at the forefront even as it continues to navigate a volatile geopolitical landscape. The Korean Peninsula’s denuclearization remains nonnegotiable, the foreign minister added, and Seoul is prepared to take calculated measures to deter and respond to any actions that threaten regional stability.