Trump due in South Korea on October 29 for APEC summit

SEOUL: US President Donald Trump is expected to arrive in South Korea on October 29 for the upcoming APEC summit, South Korea’s presidential office said Thursday.

The US president is expected to be “arriving on the 29th”, an official from the office told AFP.

US officials maintain that Trump may meet Chinese President Xi Jinping at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum, which runs until November 1.

Seoul has also said a meeting on the sidelines between the United States and North Korea “cannot be ruled out”.

South Korean media cited the national security advisor as saying that Trump is expected to stay in the southern city of Gyeongju until October 30.

A meeting with the South Korean President Lee Jae Myung will likely take place around that time, according to the reports.

Last week, Trump threatened to scrap a planned meeting with Xi at the forum, in retaliation for Beijing imposing export curbs on rare-earth technologies.

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, however, told CNBC on Wednesday that Trump still planned to meet Xi.

Trump has also said he hopes to meet North Korean leader Kim Jong Un again, possibly this year, while Pyongyang has said Kim is open to future talks under certain circumstances.

The pair met three times during Trump’s first term, but ultimately failed to secure a lasting agreement on North Korea’s nuclear programme.

Since then, Pyongyang has declared itself an “irreversible” nuclear state.

Geopolitical shift

The forum comes against a shifting geopolitical backdrop, with Kim emboldened by the war in Ukraine.

The North Korean leader has secured critical support from Russia after sending thousands of troops to fight alongside Moscow’s forces.

Last month, Kim appeared alongside Xi and Russian President Vladimir Putin at an elaborate military parade in Beijing.

Pyongyang also showed off its “most powerful” intercontinental ballistic missile at its own parade attended by top officials from Russia and China.

Staging that “massive display of force just before South Korea hosts a major international summit is a calculated move to create anxiety and project strength,” Seong-Hyon Lee, a visiting scholar at the Harvard University Asia Center, told AFP.

“It aims to undermine confidence and highlight the new, harsher strategic reality on the peninsula.”