South Korean President Lee Jae Myung will likely have a summit meeting with his US counterpart Donald Trump later this month amid a flurry of high-level diplomacy between Lee and other heads of state.
According to government sources on Thursday, the two allies are nearing an agreement to hold a summit at the White House on Aug. 25. President Lee will likely fly to Washington, D.C. on Aug. 24, they said.
If confirmed, the summit would mark President Lee’s first face-to-face meeting with US President Trump and could set the tone for the future of their alliance amid mounting regional security concerns and tough negotiations over chip export controls and other tricky business issues.
They were supposed to meet in Calgary, Canada, on the sidelines of the Group of Seven (G7) gathering in mid-June. The summit, however, was canceled as Trump left the G7 meeting early to deal with the escalating conflict between Iran and Israel.
Presidential spokeswoman Kang Yu-jung briefs the press on the upcoming state visit by Vietnam's General Secretary of the Communist Party To Lam Under the trade deal, Korea has committed to investing $350 billion in the US, including creating a $150 billion shipbuilding fund for an initiative to revitalize the US shipbuilding industry, dubbed "Make American Shipbuilding Great Again" (MASGA).
VIETNAM’S MOST POWERFUL FIGURE IN SEOUL
Meanwhile, Vietnam’s most powerful political figure is set to visit Korea next week in what will mark the first state visit by a foreign head of state since President Lee took office on June 4.
To Lam, general secretary of Vietnam’s Communist Party and the country’s de facto ruling leader, is scheduled to be in Seoul from Aug. 10 to 13, with a bilateral summit planned for Aug. 11, Seoul’s presidential office said.
This will be the first visit by a Vietnamese party chief in over a decade, with the last taking place in 2014 under then-President Park Geun-hye.
To Lam’s visit comes as Seoul seeks to bolster its economic and diplomatic presence in Southeast Asia, and as Vietnam continues to position itself as a key beneficiary of shifting global supply chains amid intensifying US-China tensions.
South Korean President Lee Jae Myung’s special envoys paid a courtesy call on Vietnam's General Secretary of the Communist Party To Lam (second from right) in Hanoi on July 29, 2025 “Vietnam is one of our key strategic partners. The two leaders will have in-depth discussions on political, security, trade and investment issues, as well as future strategic areas, such as nuclear power, high-speed rail, smart cities and science and technology,” presidential spokesperson Kang Yu-jung said at a press briefing.
MEETINGS WITH TOP KOREAN BUSINESS LEADERS
During his four-day trip to Seoul, the Vietnamese leader will hold a series of high-level business meetings involving the heads of Korea’s largest conglomerates, including Samsung Electronics Co. Chairman Lee Jae-yong, also known internationally as Jay Y. Lee, SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won and Lotte Group Chairman Shin Dong-bin.
He is expected to visit Samsung’s key production facilities in Korea, sources said.
Samsung Electronics Chairman Jay Y. Lee (right) takes a look at a smartphone production line at its Vietnamese plant on Dec. 22, 2022 In 2014, then-party chief Nguyen Phu Trong traveled to Seoul and made a rare stop at Samsung’s headquarters to discuss business cooperation with Samsung’s Lee.
Vietnam is a manufacturing hub for Korean tech giants, particularly in semiconductors and smartphones.
Economic relations between the two nations have deepened in recent years.
South Korean President Lee Jae Myung on his first phone call with US President Donald Trump in early June As of 2024, Korea, Asia’s fourth-largest economy, ranked as Vietnam’s third-largest export destination and second-largest source of imports.
Bilateral trade totaled $86.7 billion last year, making Vietnam Korea’s third-largest trade partner for three consecutive years after China with $272.9 billion and the US with $199.9 billion, according to Korea's Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy.
Korea exported $55.9 billion worth of goods to Vietnam and imported $25.6 billion in 2024.
Write to In-Soo Nam at isnam@hankyung.com Jennifer Nicholson-Breen edited this article.
