South Korean President Lee Jae-myeon said his talks with Donald Trump during their recent meetings were “interesting and fun“ and expressed hope that the former US leader would be able to persuade North Korea to resume dialogue, Reuters reports, News.bg reports.
Since taking office in June, Lee has held two summits with Trump and finalized a trade deal that includes a $350 billion investment package from the US. The South Korean president praised Trump for his “peacemaking” role in North Korea and presented him with a replica of a gold crown.
“My talks with President Trump were quite interesting and fun. Maybe I felt a sense of kinship“, he said Yi at a press conference marking the anniversary of the martial law crisis. He called Trump a “realist, pragmatist and a master of deals who respects his colleagues“.
Yi hopes Trump will persuade North Korean leader Kim Jong-un to resume dialogue, noting that Pyongyang appears to be taking Washington more seriously than Seoul. The two Koreas technically remain at war, and North Korea has rejected conciliatory gestures from South Korea.
The president also shared his impressions of his meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping, describing it as “interesting“ and “with cheerful jokes“. During the meeting, Xi gave Yi two Xiaomi smartphones as a gift, and they jokingly discussed communications security.
Yi stressed that stable relations with China are important to South Korea and expressed hope to visit Beijing soon for another summit with Xi.