South Korean President Lee Jae Myung and US President Donald Trump discussed the US-China summit, North Korea and implementation of a security-and-trade package in a phone call Sunday, Cheong Wa Dae said.
Cheong Wa Dae explained that South Korea had requested the call to hear directly from the US side about the outcome of Trump’s summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping, held from May 14 to 15 in Beijing.
During the phone call, “Trump shared the results of the US-China summit with South Korea as an ally,” senior presidential spokesperson Kang Yu-jung said in a statement.
The two leaders also held a “sympathetic discussion on peace on the Korean Peninsula” and discussed the “smooth implementation of the Joint Fact Sheet” — a bilateral package agreement encompassing security and trade, Kang added.
The phone call ran around 30 munites from 10 p.m., accoruding to Cheong Wa Dae.
As for the background of the call, Kang said, “Korea and the United States are maintaining close communication at all levels on a range of issues, including the latest US-China summit.”
“There is a shared understanding that the two leaders can communicate whenever necessary,” Kang added.
The call came after Seoul served as a venue for pre-summit coordination between Washington and Beijing. On May 13, Lee held rare back-to-back meetings with US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng, who were in South Korea for preparatory talks ahead of the US-China summit.
Trump’s summit with Xi focused on managing the world’s most consequential bilateral rivalry amid heightened geopolitical tensions and economic friction.
At the Great Hall of the People on Thursday, Xi said he and Trump had agreed on “a new vision” for building a constructive US-China relationship marked by “strategic stability.” The meeting covered a wide range of issues, including Taiwan, the US-Israel war with Iran and trade, but produced no major breakthrough or concrete deliverables.
Trump later said he had discussed North Korea with Xi, responding to a reporter’s question aboard Air Force One on May 15 as he returned to Washington after his three-day visit to Beijing.
Trump also spoke by phone with Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi on May 15.
After the call, Takaichi said Trump “explained his visit to China in quite a lot of detail,” adding that the two leaders exchanged views mainly on China-related issues, including economic security and broader security affairs. Takaichi said she and Trump also discussed the “situation surrounding Iran.”
Trump’s respective calls with Lee and Takaichi came ahead of Lee’s scheduled summit with Takaichi on Tuesday in his hometown of Andong, North Gyeongsang Province, where the two leaders are expected to discuss expanding cooperation across the board, as well as regional and global issues.
dagyumji@heraldcorp.com
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