South Korean President Moon Jae-in arrived Thursday afternoon in Washington, D.C., for a series of meetings that continue Friday that will cover a wide range of critical issues, and not just those involving North Korea and its nuclear weapons ambitions.
The President Donald Trump held a dinner in Moon’s honor Thursday evening. At that event, the two men began the process of getting to know one another outside of the influence of career diplomatic officials, a critical step in gaining each other’s trust and forging more than just official ties between them.
At the dinner, the president said:
“We’re going to have tremendous discussions tonight. I know you’ve been discussing with our people some of the complexities of North Korea and trade and other things, and we’ll be discussing them all as we progress—and it could be very well late into the evening.
“We very much respect you and we very much respect the people of South Korea.
“I’d like to also congratulate you upon your election victory. It was a great victory, and you did a fantastic job. A lot of people didn’t expect that, and I did expect it. I thought that was going to happen. So I want to congratulate you very much.
“And thank you also, thank you for coming.”
The White House has not yet released any readouts from Thursday’s late-night meetings. It did, however, announce a break in the meetings would take place at some point Friday so that Moon and Vice President Mike Pence could participate in a wreath ceremony at the Korean War Memorial in Washington.
American veterans of the war are expected to be on hand to observe. {eoa}
