South Korean President Lee Jae-myung held a summit with US President Donald Trump in Washington on August 25. During the first in-person meeting between the two since Lee took office in June, the South Korean leader pledged to back Trump’s war drive against China.
President Donald Trump, right, speaks during a meeting with South Korean President Lee Jae Myung in the Oval Office of the White House, August 25, 2025. [AP Photo/Alex Brandon]
During the public portion of the meeting, Lee and Trump focused on issues like North Korea, which is regularly used to justify the rapidly expanding militarization of the region led by US imperialism. Trump expressed his supposed interest in a meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in the future.
In response, Lee lavished praise on the fascistic Trump, calling him a “peacemaker.” Lee told Trump, “It is not easy for inter-Korean relations to improve through my involvement alone. In fact, the only person who can truly resolve this issue is President Trump.”
The real purpose of the meeting, however, was not North Korea, but to provide Lee an opportunity to assure the Trump regime that his three-month-old administration would continue to fully back Washington’s war plans against China. Lee came to power claiming he would improve relations with Beijing and Pyongyang, exploiting widespread anti-war sentiment in the South Korean working class.
The leaders discussed the new shipbuilding deal, a part of the tariff agreement reached between the two countries in July, as well as the de facto trilateral military alliance between the US, South Korea and Japan.
A major part of the tariff agreement included Seoul’s proposed “Make American Shipbuilding Great Again” program, under which South Korean companies would build new shipyards and ships, including naval vessels in the US, and train US workers. South Korean companies would also carry out the maintenance and repair of US warships. Lee visited the South Korean-owned Hanwha Philly Shipyard in Philadelphia on Tuesday to promote this agenda.
This is directly bound up with war planning against China, which has the world’s largest navy by ship count. Jang Seong-gil, director general for trade policy at South Korea’s Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, stated on July 11, “The prerequisite for the shipbuilding cooperation is South Korea’s participation in Washington’s efforts to contain China.”
In regards to Japan, Lee prefaced the summit in Washington with a stop in Tokyo for discussions with Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba. He pledged to continue to cooperate militarily with Japan and to build “future-oriented ties,” meaning Seoul will not pursue disputes stemming from Japan’s 1910–1945 colonization of Korea.
In the past, South Korea’s ruling Democratic Party (DP) regularly used anti-Japanese chauvinism to distract from declining domestic conditions. This led to concerns in Washington and Tokyo over whether the new Lee administration and the DP would honor the trilateral agreement made under the previous administration of the right-wing Yoon Suk-yeol, who was removed from office after staging a failed coup last December.
Lee made clear he will continue the same foreign policy as Yoon. In an interview with Japan’s Yomiuri Shimbun published on August 21, Lee stated, “Trust and consistency of policy are essential principles in state-to-state relations.”
Following the summit with Trump, Lee expanded on these talks during a speech he delivered at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). He stated, “President Trump and I agreed to modernize our bilateral alliance to be more reciprocal and future-oriented in line with the changing security landscape.”
“Modernization” means the open use of US forces and bases in South Korea for war against China. At present, the ostensible role of the US military is to “defend” the South from North Korea. “Modernization” would address “evolving geopolitics, technological shifts, and the growing strategic influence of China,” in the words of a Lee administration official speaking to the media anonymously at the end of July.
During his CSIS speech, Lee mixed empty statements about the supposed strength of South Korean “democracy” while also speaking about the growing competition between the US and China. He claimed that Seoul is still attempting to maintain relations with Beijing, but stated, “At this point, we cannot act or make decisions that go against America’s basic policy stance.” In other words, whatever Washington demands, Seoul will adhere to it.
Therefore, in line with Washington’s call for US allies to raise military spending to 5 percent of GDP, Lee declared that Seoul “will increase our defense budget, which will be used to transform the (South) Korean military into a smart military that will prevail in future warfare. And so we will use this to acquire cutting-edge technology and military assets.”
According to South Korea’s Defense Ministry, Seoul will spend 61.2 trillion won ($US44 billion) on the military in 2025, or 2.32 percent of GDP. Other sources in the South Korean press place the figure higher at 2.7 percent. On Friday, the Defense Ministry proposed a 66.29 trillion won ($US47.6 billion) budget for next year, the largest increase in seven years.
Seoul will likely purchase more weaponry from the US. During the summit with Lee, Trump hinted that South Korea could purchase nuclear-capable B-2 bombers, though the US has never sold this plane to another country. If realized, it would be a dramatic escalation in which bombers could potentially be flown by South Korean pilots loaded with US nuclear bombs.
In addition, while Lee absurdly lauded Trump as a “peacemaker,” the summit took place as the US and South Korea carried out their annual Ulchi Freedom Shield war exercises, the first half of which began on August 18 and ran through August 28. The exercises are of the same scale as last year, with approximately 18,000 South Korean soldiers taking part. More than 40 field exercises have been planned in total.
At the same time, the Trump administration was rapidly escalating its plans for war abroad and dictatorship at home. This included dispatching US navy vessels and Marines to the coast of Venezuela, while deploying National Guard troops throughout Washington D.C. and threatening the same in other major cities.
Therefore, Lee’s praise for Trump is not just empty talk to placate the US president’s ego, but serves a definite political purpose: to cover up and justify Seoul’s alignment with the US war preparations against China.
Prior to the summit, Lee also claimed that Washington’s demands for “modernization” and “strategic flexibility” were things to which Seoul “cannot easily” agree. This rapidly proved not to be the case.
However, to the extent that Lee’s administration has expressed a desire for improved relations with Beijing, it is because the ruling Democrats speak for sections of the South Korean bourgeoisie that have long favored closer economic ties with China.
Lee is also conscious that there is widespread anti-war sentiment in South Korea, and that workers will not simply accept the further attacks on their living conditions that will inevitably come with increased military spending and war with China.
This once again reveals the fraudulent posturing of the Democratic Party and Lee government, claiming to have come to power to defend democracy and pledging reforms for the working class. The Democrats’ goal was to stabilize the capitalist political system and suppress the class struggle. In doing so, Seoul and the Democrats seek to maintain the support of Washington.
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