Lee’s office said the two leaders also discussed the assassination attempts they both experienced last year as well as their enthusiasm for golf.
Lee underwent surgery after he was stabbed in the neck by a man in January last year, while Trump was wounded in the ear by a bullet fired by a would-be assassin in July.
South Korea, a major US ally and one of the first countries after Japan to engage with Washington on trade talks, agreed in late April to craft a “July package” scrapping levies before the 90-day pause on Trump’s reciprocal tariffs is lifted, but progress was disrupted by the change of governments in Seoul.
Lee said on the eve of the elections that “the most pressing matter is trade negotiations with the United States.” Lee’s camp has said, however, that they intend to seek more time to negotiate on trade with Trump.
While reiterating the importance of the US-South Korea alliance, Lee has also expressed more conciliatory plans for ties with China and North Korea, singling out the importance of China as a major trading partner while indicating a reluctance to take a firm stance on security tensions in the Taiwan Strait.
Political analysts say that while Trump and Lee may share a desire to try to re-engage with North Korea, Lee’s stance on China could cause friction with the US.
A White House official said this week that South Korea’s election was fair, but expressed concern about Chinese interference in what analysts said may have been a cautionary message to Lee.
Speaking in Singapore last week, US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said many countries were tempted by the idea of seeking economic cooperation with China and defense cooperation with the United States, and warned that such entanglement complicated defense cooperation.
