Lee urges Trump to lead peaceful push with North Korea

South Korean President Lee Jae Myung pressed Donald Trump for a peaceful push on North Korea during a brief G7 encounter in Évian-les-Bains, France, as both leaders briefly crossed paths before the group photo. South Korean officials said the exchange lasted about 30 seconds, with Trump asking Lee about the current state of inter-Korean relations and Lee urging him to lead a peaceful resolution of the North Korea issue “just as he resolved the Middle East war.” South Korean presidential spokesperson Kang Yu-jung said Trump replied that he intended to work toward such a resolution.

The exchange was small in time but large in signal. Lee’s outreach appeared aimed at keeping the North Korea file on Washington’s agenda while nudging Trump toward diplomacy rather than confrontation. That matters for South Korea, which still depends on U.S. military backing and coordination for deterrence on the Korean Peninsula, and for allies across Northeast Asia trying to read how far Trump’s instincts might reshape regional security. French President Emmanuel Macron greeted Lee at the summit venue before the photo session, underscoring how quickly the issue moved from protocol to strategic messaging.

The timing also reflected a familiar problem for Washington: Trump has leverage with Pyongyang mostly through direct presidential diplomacy, not through public pressure alone. He has said in 2026 that he has been in communication with Kim Jong Un, but North Korea has kept rejecting denuclearization demands. Kim Yo-jong called those demands an “anachronistic dream” in early June. U.S. officials earlier this month reiterated that Washington remained committed to denuclearization, leaving little sign of a near-term policy shift even as the White House again signals openness to a personal channel with Kim.

That tension is rooted in Trump’s first-term history with North Korea. He met Kim three times, starting in Singapore on June 12, 2018, where the two sides signed a joint statement committing to new U.S.-DPRK relations and peace, prosperity and security on the Korean Peninsula and in the world. The diplomacy then broke down at Hanoi on February 27-28, 2019, when the summit ended early without a deal on denuclearization and sanctions relief. Trump later became the first sitting U.S. president to step onto North Korean soil at the Demilitarized Zone on June 30, 2019.

Lee’s appeal at the G7 suggested South Korea is again trying to shape the terms of that relationship before Washington defines them alone. The result was not a breakthrough, but it did reopen a familiar question in Northeast Asia: whether Trump’s personal diplomacy can produce leverage, or only another round of symbolic movement without a durable settlement.