hankyoreh

President Lee Jae Myung of South Korea listens to comments during an open debate on AI by the UN Security Council at the UN headquarters in New York on Sept. 24, 2025. (Yonhap)

President Lee Jae Myung, who has been in New York since Monday to attend the UN General Assembly, personally convened with US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Wednesday to work toward a breakthrough in trade negotiations, which have reached a stalemate. Lee also hosted a dinner, inviting leading figures in US foreign affairs and security to recruit influential allies for Korea.
 
The primary purpose of Lee’s meeting with Bessent was to directly sell the idea of a currency swap agreement, which would enable Korea to put up won as collateral so that it could borrow US dollars at a fixed exchange rate — currently the biggest sticking point regarding Korea’s pledge to invest US$350 billion in the US. 

The two had originally scheduled a one-on-one meeting at the Korea “investment summit” event at the New York Stock Exchange on Thursday, but a scheduling conflict on Bessent’s part prompted the two to meet a day earlier.
 
 “Although Bank of Korea Gov. Rhee Chang-yong and Finance Minister Koo Yun-cheol already met with Bessent to fully explain the potential disruption that large-scale cash investments could cause in Korea’s forex market, Lee set aside time for another meeting,” a presidential official explained. 

Kim Yong-beom, Lee’s chief policy secretary, told reporters that Lee “personally explained” Korea’s forex predicament to Bessent, touting the meeting as a “watershed” for ongoing tariff negotiations. Such praise reflects the high expectations that the final negotiation card of a one-on-one meeting with the president will pay off. 
 
Lee conducted interviews with US news magazine Time, the UK’s BBC, Reuters and other news outlets prior to his US visit to sway public opinion in Korea’s favor by making clear the South Korean administration’s stance on the issue before he began meeting officials during his time in the US. The presidential office believes that such efforts have paid off, as it has rallied voices of reason within the US to speak up about the unreasonable aspects of Washington’s current proposal for how Korea’s investment fund should be set up. 
 
On his first day in New York, Lee met with a delegation of lawmakers, including Rep. Young Kim (R-CA), the chairperson of the House Foreign Affairs East Asia and Pacific Subcommittee, and Rep. Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), a ranking member of the US Senate Committee on Foreign Relations.

“While there are concerns that the Korea-US tariff negotiations could cause instability in Korea’s foreign exchange market, the two parties will be able to find a solution that ensures ‘commercial rationality,’” Lee stated while he sought the lawmakers’ cooperation.
 
Lee’s decision to host a dinner for leading US experts on foreign affairs and security rather than attend the state dinner hosted by US President Donald Trump on Tuesday also reflects the diplomatic strategy he prioritized during this US visit. 

Present at the dinner were Ian Bremmer, the president of Eurasia Group, who also leads a political consulting firm and is highly influential within Washington’s political circles; Daniel Kurtz-Phelan, the executive editor of Foreign Affairs, a renowned foreign policy journal, and others. Instead of striving to get into Trump’s good graces, Lee decided to focus on swaying US public opinion.
 
“The president has already held a summit with Trump fairly recently, and the two leaders are due to meet again at the 2025 APEC Summit in Gyeongju. We prioritized having meetings with key US figures over angling for a meeting that would barely last 10 seconds,” a presidential office insider remarked. 

By Um Ji-won, staff reporter

Please direct questions or comments to [english@hani.co.kr]