South Korea’s conservative President Yoon Suk-yeol confirmed in a press conference on Thursday that he held a phone call with American President-elect Donald Trump that day to discuss, among other issues, North Korea’s growing belligerence against its neighbor and its involvement in the Ukraine war.
Trump, who served as president from 2017 to 2021, became the second president in American history this week to win two nonconsecutive terms in office with his defeat of Democrat Vice President Kamala Harris. Harris boasted a limited, gaffe-filled record on foreign policy, including an embarrassing incident at the Korean Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) in 2022 in which she claimed that America has “an alliance with the Republic of North Korea.”
Trump spent much of the first two days after the election on the phone with world leaders, including Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, and Japanese Prime Minister Ishiba Shigeru. South Korean media reported that Yoon was the eleventh world leader to speak to Trump following his win.
According to South Korean news agency Yonhap, Yoon said he congratulated Trump on his “landslide victory” and emphasized the need for an in-person meeting. Yoon was inaugurated into office in 2022 and did not have a chance to work with Trump during his first term; Trump was president during the radical leftist presidency of his predecessor, Moon Jae-in.
Leftist South Korean newspaper Hankyoreh quoted Yoon telling reporters that the two discussed the communist threat from North Korea at Trump’s behest.
“When I told him that they [North Korea] have sent 7,000 waste balloons across the border, jammed our GPS systems, and recklessly launched ICBMs [intercontinental ballistic missiles] and IRBMs [intermediate-range ballistic missiles], he [Trump] said it was ‘unbelievable,'” Yoon told reporters. “We agreed to meet soon to share lots of information and discuss countermeasures.”
Trump maintained a functional relationship with communist dictator Kim Jong-un that resulted in Trump becoming the first American president to step foot in North Korea, which occurred in 2019. Pyongyang has dramatically increased its belligerent activity since President Joe Biden took office, and particularly in the last year as Kim has forged closer ties to Russian strongman Vladimir Putin. The communist country began flying balloons full of garbage, feces, and other unpleasant content into South Korea in May and has not stopped. The week before the American election, Pyongyang fired an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) it described as a new model called the “Hwasong-19.” The missile flew for a record 86 minutes and is believed to be capable of delivering a nuclear payload to the continental United States.
The South Korean JoongAng Ilbo newspaper reported that Yoon and Trump also spent much of their conversation discussing building and repairing warships.
“Trump noted that the U.S. shipbuilding industry requires support and cooperation from Korea as he expressed awareness of Korea’s capabilities in the sector, according to Seoul’s presidential office,” the newspaper shared. “The top office said the president-elect went on to stress a need for close collaboration beyond ship exports to areas such as maintenance, repairs and overhauls (MRO), and that Trump said he is looking forward to furthering discussions with Yoon.”
The interest in repairing and maintaining American warships in South Korea appears to be part of a strategy to contain Chinese colonialism in the nearby South China Sea. The Communist Party claims almost the entirety of the South China Sea, demanding sovereignty over territory that legitimately belongs to Malaysia, Brunei, the Philippines, and Vietnam; Beijing also falsely claims sovereignty over the entire nation of Taiwan. Having an operation base in South Korea would facilitate Freedom of Navigation Operations (FONOPs), peaceful passages intended to affirm China’s lack of sovereignty over international waters in the sea.
“The U.S. Navy envisions scenarios where American aircraft carriers receive MRO services in South Korea before deploying for operations in regions of Indo-Pacific and Europe,” an anonymous official told JoongAng. “This would not only boost the defense industry but also enhance the strategic and geopolitical value of the South Korea-U.S. alliance.”
Yoon’s principal deputy national security adviser Kim Tae-hyo told reporters following the call that Yoon considers it urgent to meet with Trump in person.
“There’s a great need to meet in person and discuss these issues in detail, so President Yoon and President-elect Trump have agreed to set a date and location for a meeting very soon,” Kim asserted.
Yoon also sent Cho Hyun-dong, the Korean ambassador to Washington, to Trump’s Mar-a-Lago complex in Florida to establish dialogue with his incoming administration.
Prior to the conversation on Thursday, Kim Tae-ho told reporters that Yoon planned to “establish a perfect Korea-U.S. security posture with the new Washington administration to ensure unwavering national security.”
President Yoon congratulated Trump in public on Wednesday, writing on social media, “Under your strong leadership, the future of the ROK-U.S. alliance and America will shine brighter. Look forward to working closely with you.”
President Biden never established a coherent Korean Peninsula policy under his leadership, focusing instead on attracting the attention of Korean celebrities. His lack of prioritizing the region led Yoon to make extreme declarations in public, such as suggesting in January 2023 that South Korea “could deploy tactical nuclear weapons or possess its own nukes.” The possibility of nuclear proliferation alarmed the Biden White House into sending an American nuclear-capable submarine to the port city of Busan in July of that year.
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