South Korea: Trump voices hope to meet North Korean leader Kim this year, eyes ownership of US base land in South Korea

Washington, Aug 26 US President Donald Trump expressed his hope to meet North Korean leader Kim Jong-un this year, renewing his desire to reengage with the reclusive leader, as he held his first in-person summit with South Korean President Lee Jae Myung in Washington.

Sitting next to Lee at the Oval Office, Trump repeated his claim that he has a "great" relationship with Kim and "gets along great" with him, while portraying the North as a country of "tremendous" potential in what appears to be a call for the dynastic ruler to come back to the negotiating table.

Lee threw his support behind Trump's pursuit of dialogue with Kim, calling on Trump to play a "peacemaker role" to chart a "new path" for peace on the Korean Peninsula. Trump expressed his expectation that he and Lee can make "big progress" over diplomacy toward North Korea.

"Well, I am meeting a lot of people. I mean, it's hard to say that, but I'd like to meet him this year," Trump said during a press availability, responding to a reporter's question of when he will meet Kim.

He touted his personal ties with Kim, which Kim Yo-jong, the high-profile sister of the North Korean leader, recently depicted as "not bad."

"I get along with him really well. I think he has a country of great potential, tremendous potential," he said, noting that it is "good" to get along with Kim.

Trump indicated his willingness to work with Lee to address North Korean issues, although it remains uncertain whether Pyongyang would accede to diplomatic overtures from Seoul and Washington at a time when it relies on Russia for food, fuel, technology, military support and other assistance.

"We think we can do something in that regard, with respect to North and South (Korea), and I think you are much more prone to doing that than other leaders that I've been working with from South Korea," he said.

His remarks came amid expectations that Trump would seek to resume his personal diplomacy with Kim, which led to three in-person meetings between them during his first term -- the first summit in Singapore in June 2018, the second in Hanoi in February 2019 and the last in June of the same year.

Asked about the 28,500-strong US Forces Korea (USFK), Trump said that he wants to ask Seoul to give the United States "ownership" of land the Asian ally has lent to host U.S. military bases on its soil -- a move that sparked concerns that what was seen as Trump's "expansionism" could extend to Korea.

"Maybe one of the things I'd like to do is ask them to give us ownership of the land while we have the big fort. You know we spent a lot of money building a fort, and there was a contribution made by South Korea," he said.

"But I would like to see if we could get rid of the lease and get ownership of the land where we have a massive military base," he added.

The comment followed Trump's explicit display earlier this year of his hope to acquire or take control of Greenland, the Panama Canal, Canada and Gaza. South Korea has lent land for US troops under the Status of Forces Agreement, a mutually agreed-upon legal framework that governs the legal status of US forces.

He raised the ownership issue when responding to a question of whether his administration will reduce the USFK troop number.

"I don't want to say that now because we've been friends and we're friends," he said while erroneously putting the USFK number at "over 40,000."

Speculation has continued that Washington is considering readjusting the size, composition and role of USFK to better deter the "pacing threat" from an increasingly assertive China.

Regarding a recent trade deal between the two countries, Trump pointed out that South Korea wanted a renegotiation. Under the deal, Korea committed to investing $350 billion in the US, among other pledges, in return for the US' lowering of "reciprocal tariffs" to 15 per cent from the proposed 25 per cent.

"They want to renegotiate the deal, but that's okay. I don't mind that," he said.

"That doesn't mean they get anything, but I don't mind, but we're going to have some very serious discussions about different things, including trade."

In a separate press availability later, Trump said that Seoul and Washington agreed to stick to last month's trade deal.

"I think we had a deal done. They have some problems with it, but we stuck to our guns," Trump said.

"We are going to. They are going to make the deal that they agreed to make."

Praising South Korea's shipbuilding capabilities, Trump said that his administration is considering a shipbuilding contract with the Asian country, as Washington strives to rebuild its industry given that America lags behind China's shipbuilding capacities.

"We are thinking about contracting some ships. They build them very well in South Korea," Trump said.

"They're also thinking about coming to our country with some shipyards to start us on the process of building ships again."

During trade negotiations, Seoul proposed a "Make American Shipbuilding Great Again" project, which includes constructing new shipyards in the US, nurturing shipbuilding personnel and reestablishing related supply chains as well as building American ships and cooperating on maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) projects.

Regarding a question of whether he will attend the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit set to take place in South Korea on October 31-November 1, Trump said, "I'd love to."

"I think I'm going for a trade meeting to South Korea pretty soon," Trump said.

He also commented on the issue of the "comfort women" -- the victims of Japan's wartime sexual slavery -- underscoring that it was an issue preventing the two countries from working together.

"Japan wanted to go. They want to get on (with it) and but Korea was very stuck on that," he said.

He added, "It was hard getting Japan and Korea together because of what took place a long time ago."

His mention of the comfort women issue came as Lee has paid policy attention to separating historical grievances from practical cooperation with Japan on security and other fronts, while underscoring the importance of trilateral cooperation among Seoul, Washington and Tokyo.

Lee's decision to choose Japan as the first leg of his two-nation trip spoke volumes of his willingness to maintain close ties with Tokyo.

Trump said Japan wants to get along with Korea, noting the two neighbors have "something in common" -- the need to confront North Korean threats.

Despite his earlier social media post critical of the new South Korean government, the initial part of the meeting between Lee and Trump -- open to the press -- proceeded in a cordial manner, Yonhap news agency reported.

In the post, Trump claimed there seems to be something like a "purge or revolution" in South Korea in an apparent reference to ongoing special counsel investigations into former President Yoon Suk Yeol, who has been detained over his martial law bid in December.

Trump later elaborated, saying that he posted it as he heard about recent raids by Korean investigators on churches and a military base.

"I am sure it's a misunderstanding, but there's a rumor going around about raiding churches," he said. "We will talk. I am sure that's going to be worked out fine."

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