President Lee Jae Myung pronounces the adoption of a reality sheet on agreements with the US from the press room of the presidential workplace in Seoul’s Yongsan District on Nov. 14, 2025. (Yonhap)
On Friday, Korean President Lee Jae Myung personally introduced the very fact sheet summarizing agreements reached throughout two latest summits with US President Donald Trump.
The actual fact sheet was launched round 16 days after Lee and Trump reached a deal within the two international locations’ long-running tariff talks in a gathering held alongside the Asia-Pacific Financial Cooperation summit in Gyeongju, North Gyeongsang Province, on Oct. 29.
“We’ve completed making ready the joint reality sheet detailing the agreements reached between our two international locations in our two summits,” Lee mentioned in a press convention held within the presidential workplace in Yongsan, Seoul, on Friday.
“This wraps up our safety deliberations, in addition to the tariff talks that had been one of many best variables in our financial system and nationwide safety. As president, I categorical my honest gratitude to the Korean individuals for his or her belief and help within the authorities, to the businesspeople who labored energetically with the federal government, and to the civil servants within the negotiations who strove valiantly for our nationwide curiosity,” Lee mentioned.
Lee additionally commented on the Korea-US civil nuclear cooperation settlement and permission for Korea to construct nuclear-powered submarines, which was reportedly a sticking level within the negotiations.
“We’ve reached an settlement with the US about Korea growing nuclear-powered submarines, a strategic asset important for stability on the Korean Peninsula and a decades-old goal for Korea. We additionally managed to achieve the US authorities’s help for authorizing our enrichment of uranium and reprocessing of spent nuclear gasoline. That’s regarded as very vital progress,” Lee mentioned.
Lee mentioned the 2 sides had agreed to “discover institutional adjustments that can allow not solely American industrial vessels but in addition American naval vessels to be in-built Korea.”
Shortly after the summit, Trump had posted on social media that “South Korea shall be constructing its Nuclear Powered Submarine within the Philadelphia Shipyards, proper right here within the good ol’ U.S.A,” referring to the Hanwha Philly Shipyard.
Lee subsequent mentioned bilateral safety points.
“We reconfirmed the US’ steadfast dedication to prolonged deterrence and the continued stationing of US troops in Korea. We expressed our willpower to play a number one function within the protection of the Korean Peninsula by means of build up our army and recovering wartime operational management, and the US expressed its help and promised to help us in these efforts,” the Korean president informed reporters.
“The Korea-US alliance has developed into a real future-oriented strategic partnership that covers nationwide safety, the financial system and excessive tech. The door has opened for a renaissance in our alliance that shall be helpful for each our international locations,” Lee mentioned.
Within the Q&A session that adopted, Lee tackled a query about why the very fact sheet’s launch was delayed.
“The US authorities’s normal place had already been confirmed through the summits, however very totally different phrases have been proposed when the detailed doc was being drafted. Since this can be a essential and doubtlessly fateful matter for Korea, we couldn’t disregard a single topic, or certainly a single phrase. So we meticulously examined the specifics of the settlement and sharply debated each element,” he mentioned.
“As many have guessed, I believe the problems of uranium enrichment and nuclear reprocessing needed to be mulled over contained in the US authorities,” Lee defined.
Lee provided the next reflections on the negotiations with the People.
“Regardless of the grave significance of those issues and their potential influence on the way forward for our state, there was a powerful chance that they might be dealt with unilaterally, in line with energy relationships, and not using a cheap lodging of our needs. That’s why there have been severe considerations that the nationwide curiosity and folks’s lives could be pushed apart in favor of geopolitical dynamics,” he mentioned.
“Whereas now we have our political variations, we should always all unite behind cheap help for the nationwide curiosity and the Korean individuals. However we have been severely burdened by strain we felt from some in our nation who demanded that we unexpectedly settle for the opposite facet’s calls for and accused us of incompetence for not being sooner to achieve an settlement,” the president mentioned.
By Shin Hyeong-cheol, workers reporter
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