‘What’s going on in South Korea’: Trump sets a tense tone before meeting with Lee

Hours before a high-stakes summit with South Korean President Lee Jae Myung at the White House, US President Donald Trump on Monday claimed that South Korea appeared to be going through a “purge or revolution”, raising eyebrows in both Washington and Seoul.

Taking to Truth Social, Trump wrote, “WHAT IS GOING ON IN SOUTH KOREA? Seems like a Purge or Revolution. We can’t have that and do business there. I am seeing the new President today at the White House. Thank you for your attention to this matter!!!”

The comments, posted ahead of Lee’s meeting with President, come at a time of heightened tension on the Korean Peninsula. Over the weekend, North Korea test-fired two new air defence missiles, while South Korean troops fired warning shots at North Korean soldiers who briefly crossed the heavily fortified border.

Lee, a left-leaning former labor lawyer, assumed office in June following the impeachment of conservative President Yoon Suk Yeol, who was removed after controversially imposing martial law during anti-government protests.

Despite his political background, Lee has emphasised continuity in security policy, maintaining joint US-South Korea military drills and expanding cooperation with Japan.

His administration has also proposed a phased roadmap to dismantle North Korea’s nuclear programme — beginning with a freeze and leading to gradual reductions — a plan Seoul hopes to gain US support for during this visit.

Trump’s erratic tone ahead of the meeting is being closely watched, especially in light of his renewed focus on international breakthroughs.

Analysts suggest that disappointment from his recent summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska — which ended without progress on Ukraine — could push Trump to seek a more impactful outcome from today’s meeting.

“Having the Alaska summit not go as well as he wanted may make the president much more interested in seeing this meeting with South Korea come off very well,” MoneyControl quoted Victor Cha of the Center for Strategic and International Studies as saying.

Lee’s visit comes amid growing concern over deepening military ties between North Korea and Russia.

Intelligence reports indicate Pyongyang has supplied weapons and possibly troops to aid Moscow’s war in Ukraine — giving Kim Jong Un little incentive to return to talks with the US or Seoul.

Whether Trump’s unpredictable diplomacy will realign or derail efforts at engagement remains to be seen. But his comments have already cast a shadow over what was intended to be a reset in US–South Korea relations.

Lee and Trump are set to hold their first bilateral summit at the White House around noon Monday, followed by a working lunch.

The summit came to fruition after Seoul and Washington agreed on a trade deal at the end of July that set tariffs on Korean exports to the United States at 15%, lower than the announced 25%.

Korea pledged to invest $350 billion in the United States, which includes a $150 billion shipbuilding cooperation initiative dubbed the Make American Shipbuilding Great Again, or MASGA, project.

With inputs from agencies