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President Lee must be bold at Trump meeting

Published: 18 Aug. 2025, 00:04

Lee Ha-kyung

The author is a senior columnist at the JoongAng Ilbo.

Paul Krugman, the New York Times columnist, likened U.S. President Donald Trump to Caligula, the tyrannical emperor of Rome. In Alaska, Trump brushed aside Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and sat down instead with Russia’s “czar,” Vladimir Putin. There, he bartered away a “forced peace” — handing the invader prime slices of Ukrainian territory and compelling Kyiv to abandon its NATO ambitions in exchange for an end to the war.

An American think tank said the encounter carried the “smell of Yalta,” recalling the 1945 conference where the Allies carved up the destinies of Eastern Europe and the Korean Peninsula. Eighty years ago, Syngman Rhee exposed the so-called “Yalta deal,” accusing Washington and London of ceding Korea to the Soviets. The United States denied it — the truth was never proven — but many credit Rhee with preventing Korea’s communization. Trump, who scorns rules and believes might makes right, fits the mold of a tyrant. Today he growls at China. Tomorrow, he may attempt a grand bargain with another great power at the expense of weaker nations. Without the cunning and courage of Rhee, Korea could suffer Ukraine’s humiliation.

President Donald Trump and Russia's President Vladimir Putin arrive for a press conference at Joint Base Elmendorf- Richardson on Aug. 15 in Anchorage, Alaska. [AP/YONHAP]

Trump has already shredded existing trade agreements with his tariff blitz, forcing allies to yield. Even Korea, Japan and the European Union, all subjected to 15 percent reciprocal tariffs, eventually bent the knee. The Korea-U.S. Free Trade Agreement — a landmark pact born of an extraordinary bipartisan effort by liberal Roh Moo-hyun and conservative Lee Myung-bak that transformed the alliance into both a security and economic partnership — vanished after 13 years. By contrast, Trump twice postponed a 145 percent tariff on China, whose leverage lies in rare earths. Principle and trust mean nothing to him. The rules-based global trading system under the WTO, the economic pillar of liberal order, lies in cardiac arrest. The postwar order created by America is now being murdered by America.

U.S. President Donald Trump, right, shakes hand with Russian President Vladimir Putin, as they meet to negotiate for an end to the war in Ukraine, at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Anchorage, Alaska, on Aug. 15. [REUTERS/YONHAP]

Next week, President Lee Jae Myung will meet this “tyrant” to reshape the board of security and economics. Korea’s very tectonic plates may tremble, yet Trump, pressed for time, has neither the will nor the interest to show consideration. Korea bears risks at its doorstep in North Korea, China and Russia — adversaries with opposing ideologies and systems. Strengthening the alliance with the United States, a fellow democracy and market economy, is therefore not a choice but a destiny. The asymmetry of such negotiations means Korea has far more to lose, but that is no reason for timidity. The alliance is the hard-won accumulation of desperate struggles by past presidents. Reviving their patriotism and resolve can reveal a winning move.

In 1953, before the armistice, Syngman Rhee told Washington: sign a mutual defense treaty or let Korean forces march north to unify the peninsula. The United States, wary of a third world war, relented. That October, Rhee secured the Korea-U.S. alliance — a bankrupt nation at war shaking the grand strategy of the world’s strongest power and surviving certain doom.

In 1979, when Jimmy Carter, branded Seoul’s “grim reaper,” came to deliver notice of a U.S. troop withdrawal, Park Chung Hee met him at the Blue House. Sitting down at the table, Park read aloud for 45 minutes a handwritten declaration opposing the pullout. Carter fumed. They clashed bitterly over troop levels and human rights. Carter pressed Seoul to spend more, citing North Korea’s military budget of 20 percent of gross national product. Park shot back: if we did the same, there would be riots. Though the weaker party, Park stood tall. The press called it “the worst summit,” but Carter backed off troop withdrawal.

President Donald Trump disembarks Air Force One as he arrives at Joint Base Andrews, Md., early on Aug. 16 from a summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Anchorage, Alaska. [AP/YONHAP]

Now, Lee Jae Myung will face Trump’s demands for “modernizing” the alliance to contain China: strategic flexibility for U.S. Forces Korea, troop cuts, role adjustments and higher defense contributions. For Trump, alliances are business transactions. During his first term, he even contemplated pulling U.S. troops out entirely. The Korean president must defend the alliance against this reckless dealmaker — and extract an ironclad commitment to the continued provision of extended nuclear deterrence. The lonely fortitude of Rhee and Park, who stood barehanded against great powers, should be recalled. Today’s Korea, a manufacturing powerhouse, even holds a trump card in the shipbuilding cooperation project Washington covets for its rivalry with Beijing.

Realist scholar John Mearsheimer warns that Koreans live in the world’s most unforgiving geopolitical environment, where a single misstep could prove fatal. All the more reason for the president to transcend partisan divides and marshal the nation’s collective wisdom. The lived experiences of past presidents are weapons more potent than missiles. For diplomacy to work, domestic consensus must first be secured. When storms rage, a nation cannot afford to sail without a destination, rudderless and divided.

This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom.