As countries around the globe prepare for a second Trump presidency, one world leader is teeing up a carefully calibrated diplomatic strategy. <\/p>\n
It said Yoon had done so \u201cfollowing the advice of those around him,\u201d but declined to say when the president practiced golf. <\/p>\n
Since Donald Trump reclaimed the White House last week, he has maintained a frenetic schedule as world leaders call to congratulate and court the incoming US leader, with analysts scrutinizing who will clinch a first meeting. <\/p>\n
Trump visited more golf courses than any recent president during his first year in office in 2017, spending weekends at his properties in Florida, New Jersey and Virginia, sometimes bringing lawmakers or business leaders with him. <\/p>\n
Japan\u2019s late leader Shinzo Abe famously presented gold-plated golf clubs to a newly-elected Trump during a visit to his Manhattan tower in November 2016. The two leaders also golfed together in Florida and Japan. <\/p>\n
During his last presidency, Trump met several times with then-South Korean President Moon Jae-in and held rocky talks with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un \u2013 meeting him in a series of unprecedented summits, and boasting that the two had fallen \u201cin love.\u201d <\/p>\n
Back then, golf also featured in the bilateral relationship. During a 2017 visit to South Korea, Trump told local lawmakers that \u201cKorean golfers are some of the best on Earth.\u201d He piled on the praise for Korea\u2019s affinity for golf, noting that \u201ceight of the top 10 players were from Korea and the top four golfers \u2013 one, two, three, four \u2013 the top four were from Korea.\u201d <\/p>\n
But Trump will return to a very different picture on the Korean Peninsula. <\/p>\n
There is rising alarm among the US and its allies about Kim and the threat posed by his regime, especially after the talks Trump held during his last presidency collapsed without agreement in a major snub to North Korea\u2019s leader. <\/p>\n
And in South Korea, Yoon\u2019s conservative government \u2013 which took office in 2022 \u2013 has emerged as a strong US partner in ramping up deterrence against North Korea, meaning they\u2019re unlikely to encourage Trump to meet with Kim without a clear path to Pyongyang\u2019s denuclearization. <\/p>\n
Meanwhile, North Korea\u2019s relationship with Russia has blossomed. Pyongyang is believed to have sent thousands of troops and tons of munitions to Russia as Moscow wages war on Ukraine, in what Western leaders see as a major escalation. <\/p>\n
Another potential headache for Yoon once Trump is in office is the future of the 28,500 US troops in South Korea. <\/p>\n
Advocates argue that a significant US military presence in the Korean Peninsula is crucial to strengthening the alliance between the two countries. The troops serve as both a means to deter any potential attack from North Korea and to counter China\u2019s aggression. <\/p>\n
But Trump, who has long viewed Washington\u2019s treaty obligations in more transactional terms, has repeatedly said he does not think South Korea is paying enough for those soldiers. <\/p>\n
Before Trump\u2019s victory, the two countries last month reached a tentative new five-year cost-sharing agreement for American forces based in South Korea, in a deal aimed at safeguarding the long-running alliance ahead of the US election. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
As countries around the globe prepare for a second Trump presidency, one world leader is teeing up a carefully calibrated diplomatic strategy. It said Yoon had done so \u201cfollowing the advice of those around him,\u201d but declined to say when the president practiced golf. Since Donald Trump reclaimed the White House last week, he has <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9754,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-9753","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9753","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9753"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9753\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9754"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9753"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9753"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9753"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}