Lee reaffirms 'pacemaker' role in US-NK talks during New York trip

President Lee Jae Myung on Tuesday reaffirmed his role as a "pacemaker" for US President Donald Trump, should dialogue resume with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.

He made the remarks during his 30-minute summit with Trump held on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York and during his speech to the UN.

"The two leaders pledged close communication to pave the way for (Trump's) dialogue (with Kim) while Lee plays the role of a pacemaker for Trump, and to establish lasting peace on the Korean Peninsula," Cheong Wa Dae Security Director Wi Sung-lac said in a briefing to reporters Tuesday.

According to the presidential office, Seoul asked Washington to play a lead role in the North Korea detente. Trump said during the summit he has a good relationship with Kim without elaborating on details about his communication with Kim.

Before the summit, Lee's fourth encounter with Trump, Lee repeated his narrative of himself as a "pacemaker" for Trump's peacemaking efforts, as mentioned during their first meeting at the White House in August 2025.

"As a direct party to peace on the Korean Peninsula, and as a pacemaker, my government will exert every effort to open and sustain the path toward dialogue," Lee said in his speech to the United Nations General Assembly at the UN headquarters in New York.

Hailing Trump’s efforts to resume talks with Kim as a sign of his “resolve” that has created a “hard-won opportunity for change,” Lee expressed hopes for prompt resumption of US-North Korea dialogue.

Trump and Kim have met three times, including the two bilateral summits in June 2018 and February 2019.

In his speech to the UN, Lee acknowledged that the two Koreas, the US and China have sought to achieve peace on the Korean Peninsula for the past decades.

"We will lay the groundwork for this to develop into a dialogue among the parties aimed at ending the war on the Korean Peninsula and transitioning to a peace regime," he added.

Trump did not mention North Korea in his earlier UN speech Tuesday.

Lee also reaffirmed his earlier push for the reduction of North Korea's nuclear capability in the medium term, which would ultimately make the Korean Peninsula free of nuclear weapons.

In his talks with UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, Lee asked for the UN's cooperation in his liberal government's handling of North Korea issues, according to Seong Ghi-hong, senior presidential secretary for public relations and communication. Lee also stressed that his administration was striving for a peaceful coexistence of the two Koreas as the most certain form of security.

The Lee-Trump summit also touched on bilateral issues.

According to Wi, Lee and Trump welcomed a "big leap forward" in talks over strategic investment without elaborating. This appeared to refer to South Korea's move to proceed with investment in US projects, including a gas-fired combined-cycle power plant construction in Texas, under an investment package agreed upon between the two countries. In return, the tariff for South Korean exports to the US was lowered.

The leaders also pledged consultations based on their willingness to deepen ties in nuclear-powered submarines, enrichment and reprocessing of spent nuclear fuel, shipbuilding, and transfer of the wartime operational control of South Korean military, from the US to South Korea, Wi added.

A follow-up coordination regarding these issues will be discussed in Washington next week, according to Cheong Wa Dae.

A high-ranking official of Cheong Wa Dae said that during Tuesday's summit, Trump had offered that the two play golf together potentially on the occasion of a Group of 20 summit in Miami in December.

Before meeting with Trump and Guterres, Lee held talks with Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on the sidelines of UN events.

Lee and Albanese discussed close cooperation in regional supply chain stability, artificial intelligence and energy between South Korea and Australia, according to the presidential office, adding Lee was expected to travel to Australia in the first half of next year.

Lee on Wednesday was set to hold an event for Wall Street investment professionals before departing for his state visit to Mexico the same day.