Trump, Lee hold first talks on trade, troops and North Korea

President Donald Trump hosted South Korean President Lee Jae‑myung at the White House on Monday for their first in‑person talks, a meeting that mixed grand gestures about peace on the Korean Peninsula with unfinished negotiations over trade and defense. In the Oval Office the two leaders discussed a July tariff and investment deal, the future of U.S. forces in South Korea, and prospects for renewed engagement with North Korea, while the session was punctuated by an earlier social media blast from Trump about turmoil in Seoul that he later called a possible misunderstanding.

Trump told reporters he hopes to meet North Korean leader Kim Jong Un again this year and repeatedly praised the rapport he said he developed with Kim during meetings in his first term. Kim Jong Un and I had a very good relationship, Trump said, adding he would like to meet him in the appropriate future. Lee urged Trump to take a leading role in brokering peace between the Koreas, at one point joking through a translator that he hoped to see a Trump Tower in Pyongyang and to play golf there.

Both presidents also focused on the complex economic package Washington and Seoul negotiated in July. The agreement set...