(Washington = Yonhap News) Correspondents Park Sung-min and Lee Yu-mi = The White House announced on the 23rd (local time) that US President Donald Trump will visit South Korea on the 29th (Korean time) and hold a meeting with President Lee Jae-myung.
White House Press Secretary Caroline Levitt announced President Trump's Asia tour itinerary at a White House briefing today.
This will be the second time the president has met with President Trump since taking office, following their first summit in Washington last August.
Spokesperson Levitt said,"President Trump will travel to Busan on Wednesday morning (the 29th), hold a bilateral meeting with the President of the Republic of Korea, deliver a keynote address at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) CEO luncheon, and attend a working dinner for leaders that same evening."
Spokesperson Levitt announced that the summit would be held in Busan, but multiple well-informed South Korean government sources said the summit itself would be held in Gyeongju, the host city of the APEC summit.
President Trump is scheduled to attend the South Korea-U.S. summit and APEC summit on the 29th, meet with President Xi the next day, and depart for Washington, D.C. that same night.
As President Trump finalizes his schedule for his visit to South Korea, attention is focused on whether the South Korea-U.S. summit will serve as an opportunity to finalize the trade agreement currently in final negotiations between the two countries.
In the composition of the $350 billion (approximately 500 trillion won) investment package for the United States, the cash investment ratio and the period of fund supply remain as last-minute issues.
Additionally, amid growing concerns about the US-China trade conflict, attention is focused on whether President Trump and President Xi can find common ground on issues such as rare earths, tariffs, and soybeans.
Spokesperson Levitt said that President Trump is scheduled to hold a bilateral meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping, who is also visiting South Korea on the sidelines of APEC, on the morning of the 30th.
With this, President Trump's stay in Korea has been announced as one night and two days.
According to the briefing, President Trump will depart Washington, D.C. on the night of the 24th and first visit Malaysia.
He will arrive in Malaysia on the morning of the 26th (Malaysian local time) and hold a bilateral meeting with Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim in the afternoon. He is scheduled to attend the ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) working-level dinner that evening.
President Trump will travel to Tokyo, Japan, the following morning on the 27th, and hold a bilateral meeting with new Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi on the morning of the 28th. He will stay in Japan for two nights and three days before departing for South Korea on the morning of the 29th.
Accordingly, President Trump is expected to not attend the plenary session of the APEC summit to be held in Gyeongju for two days starting on the 31st.
