Donald Trump landed in South Korea on Wednesday to meet President Lee Jae Myung, with deadlocked talks over a $350bn trade deal between the two countries threatening to cast a shadow over the event.<\/p>\n
After arriving on a flight from Tokyo, where he signed a rare earths deal with Japan\u2019s new prime minister<\/a>, Sanae Takaichi, the US president addressed a summit of CEOs ahead of a meeting with Lee in the town of Gyeongju, a historical city playing host to the annual Apec summit.<\/p>\n South Korea says it will award Trump its most prestigious medal for his efforts to stabilise peace on the Korean Peninsula before the meeting.<\/p>\n Lee\u2019s office said Trump will be the first US president to receive the Grand Order of Mugunghwa, South Korea\u2019s highest order, in recognition of his past diplomatic efforts and to emphasise his role as a \u201cpeacemaker\u201d between the rival Koreas.<\/p>\n Seoul also plans to present Trump with a replica of a royal gold crown from the ancient Silla Kingdom, whose capital was Gyeongju.<\/p>\n At the top of the agenda for the talks with Lee will be the unresolved trade agreement between the US and South Korea. The two allies announced a deal in August under which Seoul would avoid the worst of the tariffs by agreeing to pump $350bn of new investments into the US.<\/p>\n However, Korean officials say a direct cash injection could destabilise their economy, and they would rather do loans and loan guarantees instead. Officials from both sides have said Trump and Lee are unlikely to finalise an agreement.<\/p>\n For now, South Korea is stuck with a 25% tariff on vehicles, putting manufacturers such as Hyundai and Kia at a disadvantage against Japanese and European competitors, which face a 15% levy.<\/p>\n Trump has also pressed allies including South Korea to pay more for defence, and the two are likely to discuss efforts to engage North Korea, which announced early on Wednesday that it had test-fired a nuclear-capable cruise missile the previous day.<\/p>\n Trump has made repeated calls for a meeting with leader Kim Jong-un<\/a>, including during this trip, but there has been no public comment from Pyongyang.<\/p>\n In turn, South Korea has sought reforms to US immigration laws to allow for more workers to build factories after a raid on a Hyundai Motor battery plant in Georgia<\/a>.<\/p>\n Lee took office in June and had a warm meeting with Trump at the White House in August, but tensions emerged over the US immigration raid in September. More than 300 South Koreans were detained, sparking outrage and a sense of betrayal.<\/p>\n Lee has said companies were likely hesitate to make future investments in the US unless the visa system was improved. \u201cIf that\u2019s not possible, then establishing a local factory in the United States will either come with severe disadvantages or become very difficult for our companies,\u201d he said. \u201cThey will wonder whether they should even do it.\u201d<\/p>\n The South Korean leg of Trump\u2019s Asia tour stands in contrast to his experience in Japan, where the government has worked to fulfil its commitment of $550bn in investments as part of an earlier trade agreement. Commerce secretary Howard Lutnick announced up to $490bn in commitments during a dinner with business leaders in Tokyo.<\/p>\n Trump bonded with prime minister Takaichi, whose mentor, Shinzo Abe, was a \u201cfavourite\u201d of the US president<\/a>. On Tuesday, Trump took Takaichi with him as he spoke to US troops aboard an aircraft carrier and then unveiled several major energy and technology projects in America to be funded by Japan.<\/p>\n