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Mr Lee (left) and Mr Trump are likely to see eye to eye on North Korea, with both open to engaging its leader Kim Jong Un.

WASHINGTON/SEOUL – When South Korean President Lee Jae Myung meets US President Donald Trump next week for their first summit, he will face calls to pay more for the upkeep of American troops on the peninsula with security issues expected to be among the top agenda items.

Left largely out of the frantic trade talks that culminated in an unwritten deal in July, questions over the future of the South Korea-US alliance and the approach to nuclear-armed North Korea will be a key part of the White House discussions, officials and analysts said.

A thorny issue for Mr Lee may be Mr Trump’s push for Seoul to pay significantly more for the 28,500 American troops stationed in South Korea as a legacy of the 1950-1953 Korean War.

A US official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said a key area of focus would be so-called burden sharing, and Mr Trump is expected to push the South Koreans for more.

Mr Victor Cha, of Washington’s Centre for Strategic and International Studies, said Seoul is providing over US$1 billion (S$1.29 billion) a year to support the US troop presence and also paid to build the largest US base overseas, Camp Humphreys.

“But President Trump clearly wants more,” Mr Cha said, noting his past calls for Seoul to pay US$5 billion or even US$10 billion.

“He wants defence spending closer to 5 per cent of GDP for all allies, South Korea is currently at 3.5 per cent.”

While no decisions have been made, there are discussions within the Pentagon about removing some US troops from South Korea, the US official said.

To head that off, some at the Pentagon are trying to re-focus the alliance towards the threat posed by China.

While a lot will depend on Seoul’s willingness, the US official said the desire was to discuss in broad terms how the alliance, and US forces in South Korea, could be used to counter China.

That could bring more headaches for Mr Lee, who has expressed full support for the US alliance but vowed to take a balanced approach between Washington and Beijing.

General Xavier Brunson, commander of US Forces Korea (USFK), said in August that it was not a foregone conclusion that South Korea would be involved with any conflict over Taiwan, which China claims as its own.

However, he said there should be a recognition that nothing happens in the region in isolation and US troops in South Korea could be needed to “solve bigger problems”.

Asked about more such “strategic flexibility” South Korea’s foreign ministry said it was difficult to predict USFK operations in a hypothetical situation.

“However, the operation of the USFK is carried out under close consultation and communication between South Korea and the United States,” a spokesperson said in a statement to Reuters.

Declaring that US forces in South Korea have multiple missions could degrade their primary focus of deterring and defeating a North Korean attack, said Mr Bruce Klingner, a former US intelligence analyst now with the Mansfield Foundation.

“The more blatant the depiction of USFK as having an anti-China mission increases the likelihood that China will apply coercive pressure or retaliate economically against South Korea, as it did after Seoul deployed the US THAAD missile defence system (in 2017).”

North Korea and nukes

Mr Lee and Mr Trump are likely to see eye to eye on North Korea, with both open to engaging its leader Kim Jong Un, and the US president frequently casting himself as a global peacemaker.

However, Pyongyang has rebuffed attempts to revive the unprecedented diplomatic engagement seen in Mr Trump’s first term and doubled down on its deepening military, economic, and political ties to Russia .

“I doubt much substance will be said on North Korea beyond committing to diplomacy and reiterating a goal of denuclearisation,” said Ms Jenny Town, of the Washington-based 38 North programme, which monitors North Korea.

Mr Lee told Japan’s Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper on Aug 21 that his administration would lay the groundwork to ultimately dismantle North Korea’s nuclear weapons programme, through talks with Pyongyang and close cooperation with Washington.

North Korea has repeatedly said its nuclear weapons are not open for negotiation .

South Korean Foreign Minister Cho Hyun told parliament this week South Korea could also try to use the summit to win approval to reprocess or enrich its own nuclear materials.

Despite talk from some South Korean officials about the need to attain “nuclear latency”, or the means to quickly build an atomic arsenal, Mr Cho insisted reprocessing would be only for industrial or environmental purposes.

“Talking about our own nuclear armament or growing potential nuclear capabilities… is not helping at all with negotiations really,” he said, against a backdrop of growing domestic support for South Korea to develop its own nuclear arsenal.

Mr Daryl Kimball, executive director of the US-based Arms Control Association, said there was no practical “industrial or environmental” need for South Korea to start reprocessing, nor for a domestic uranium enrichment capability for its energy programme.

Both activities are prohibited under the current US-South Korea Agreement for Nuclear Cooperation because they could be used to produce nuclear bombs, he said.

“The foreign minister’s claims about the purpose of his government’s interest are hardly reassuring,” he said, adding: “Too many South Korean politicians are flirting with the idea of their country acquiring the nuclear weapons option.” REUTERS

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The heat is expected to intensify on the weekend of Aug 23 and Aug 24.

Though Aug 23 marks “cheoseo” – South Korea’s seasonal marker that traditionally signals the end of summer – extremely hot temperatures, accompanied by heat wave watches and tropical nights, are expected to continue into next week.

According to the Korea Meteorological Administration (KMA), heat wave watches were in effect in most parts of the country, excluding mountainous regions, as at 11am in South Korea on Aug 21 , as nationwide apparent temperatures reached as high as 35 deg C.

Heat wave watches and warnings in South Korea are issued when the maximum apparent temperature is expected to remain above 33 deg C and 35 deg C, respectively, for two or more consecutive days.

The KMA added that the recent heat stems from the Tibetan high-pressure system expanding above the Korean peninsula while hot, humid air continues to flow into the country along the edges of the North Pacific high-pressure system.

During the press briefing on Aug 21 , the KMA added that the heat will further intensify over the weekend.

The two high-pressure systems will continue to overlap above the peninsula, pushing temperatures up by an additional 1 deg C to 2 deg C.

On both Aug 23 and Aug 24 , low temperatures are expected to range between 22 deg C and 28 deg C and 22 deg C and 27 deg C, respectively, while high temperatures during the day are expected to range between 31 deg C and 36 deg C on both days.

From early next week, cool air is expected to flow into the Korean peninsula from the north, colliding with the hot, humid air and eventually forming a low-pressure system.

The KMA added that rainfall is expected to fall in the central region on Aug 26 as the system moves north.

After the low-pressure system moves out, the KMA expects the high-pressure systems to regain their grip over the country.

“While numerical forecast models diverge slightly on the exact location of the North Pacific high-pressure system’s edge, most suggest it will extend over to North Korea or at least in the northern parts above the Greater Seoul region, which is normally a sign that the heat will linger for some time,” said KMA meteorologist Gong Sang-min.

Greater Seoul includes the capital, Incheon, and Gyeonggi Province.

In its monthly outlook released on Aug 20 , the KMA added that September temperatures are also expected to remain above seasonal norms.

For the first, third, and fourth week of September, there is a 50 per cent chance of higher-than-average temperatures, with only a 10 per cent likelihood of cooler-than-normal conditions.

In the second week, the probability of seeing above-normal temperatures rises to 60 per cent.

“Though this does not necessarily mean that heat waves will continue deep into autumn, such indicators show that breaking away from ‘warmer-than-usual’ temperatures may be difficult,” KMA official Woo Jin-kyu told The Korea Herald. THE KOREA HERALD/ASIA NEWS NETWORK

By David Brunnstrom, Idrees Ali and Ju-min Park

WASHINGTON/SEOUL (Reuters) -When South Korean President Lee Jae Myung meets U.S. President Donald Trump next week for their first summit, he will be asked to pay more for the upkeep of American troops on the peninsula during talks set to be dominated by security issues and China.

Left largely out of the frantic trade talks that culminated in an unwritten deal last month, questions over the future of the South Korea-U.S. alliance and the approach to nuclear-armed North Korea will be a key part of the White House discussions, officials and analysts said.

A thorny issue for Lee may be Trump’s push for Seoul to pay significantly more for the 28,500 U.S. troops stationed in South Korea as a legacy of the 1950-1953 Korean War.

A U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said a key area of focus would be so-called burden-sharing, and Trump is expected to push the South Koreans for more.

Seoul provides more than $1 billion a year to support the U.S. troop presence and also paid to build the largest U.S. base overseas, Camp Humphreys, said Victor Cha, of Washington’s Center for Strategic and International Studies.

“But President Trump clearly wants more,” Cha said, noting his past calls for Seoul to pay $5 billion or even $10 billion. “He wants defence spending closer to 5% of GDP for all allies; South Korea is currently at 3.5%.”

South Korea wants to modernise the U.S. alliance to adapt to the changing security environment such as U.S.-China rivalry and is looking at higher defence spending, Seoul’s top security advisor Wi Sung-lac said.

“The issue (spending) is being discussed between South Korea and the United States, and the figures and such are still in progress and under discussion,” Wi told a press briefing.

‘STRATEGIC FLEXIBILITY’

There are discussions within the Pentagon about removing some U.S. troops from South Korea, the U.S. official said.

To head that off, some at the Pentagon are trying to refocus the alliance towards the threat posed by China.

While a lot will depend on Seoul’s willingness, the U.S. official said the desire was to discuss in broad terms how the alliance, and U.S. forces in South Korea, could be used to counter China.

That could bring more headaches for Lee, who has expressed full support for the U.S. alliance but vowed to take a balanced approach between Washington and Beijing.

General Xavier Brunson, commander of U.S. Forces Korea (USFK), said this month it was not a foregone conclusion that South Korea would be involved with any conflict over Taiwan, which China claims as its own.

However, he said there should be a recognition that nothing happens in the region in isolation and U.S. troops in South Korea could be needed to “solve bigger problems”.

Asked about more such “strategic flexibility”, South Korea’s Foreign Ministry said it was difficult to predict USFK operations in a hypothetical situation.

“However, the operation of the USFK is carried out under close consultation and communication between South Korea and the United States,” a spokesperson said.

NORTH KOREA AND NUKES

Lee and Trump are likely to see eye to eye on North Korea, with both open to engaging its leader Kim Jong Un, and the U.S. president frequently casting himself as a global peacemaker.

However, Pyongyang has rebuffed attempts to revive the unprecedented diplomatic engagement seen in Trump’s first term and doubled down on its deepening ties to Russia.

“I doubt much substance will be said on North Korea beyond committing to diplomacy and reiterating a goal of denuclearisation,” said Jenny Town, of the Washington-based 38 North programme, which monitors North Korea.

Lee told a Japanese newspaper on Thursday his administration would lay the groundwork to ultimately dismantle North Korea’s nuclear weapons programme, through talks with Pyongyang and close cooperation with Washington.

North Korea has repeatedly said its nuclear weapons are not open for negotiation.

South Korean Foreign Minister Cho Hyun told parliament this week South Korea could also try to use the summit to win approval to reprocess or enrich its own nuclear materials.

Despite talk from some South Korean officials about the need to attain “nuclear latency”, or the means to quickly build an atomic arsenal, Cho said reprocessing would be only for industrial or environmental purposes.

Daryl Kimball, executive director of the U.S.-based Arms Control Association, said there was no practical “industrial or environmental” need for South Korea to start reprocessing, or for a domestic uranium enrichment capability for its energy programme.

Both activities are prohibited under the current U.S.-South Korea Agreement for Nuclear Cooperation because they could be used to produce nuclear bombs, he said.

“Too many South Korean politicians are flirting with the idea of their country acquiring the nuclear weapons option,” he added.

(Reporting by David Brunnstrom and Idrees Ali in Washington, and Ju-min Park in Seoul; Writing by Josh Smith; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan and Helen Popper)

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The incident has cast a spotlight on the integrity of the government’s procurement system.

– A HK$53 million (S$8.7 million) contract to supply drinking water from mainland China to government offices in Hong Kong is at the centre of the latest scandal to rock the Asian financial hub.

The government said late on Aug 20 that it had terminated all contracts associated with Xin Ding Xin Trade (XDX), after concluding that the firm could not fulfil the three-year deal to supply mainland-bottled water to Hong Kong’s public offices.

The authorities have arrested the married couple behind the Hong Kong-registered firm on suspicion that they gave officials false information to win the water contract.

The police’s preliminary probe also found the couple are linked to a separate fraud case in 2022, local media reported.

On Aug 21, the city’s procurement chief Carlson Chan apologised for lapses on the government’s part that caused it to overlook the fraudulent deal.

But the incident – still unfolding as investigations continue – has cast a spotlight on the integrity of the government’s procurement system.

It has also brought to the fore a latent mistrust of mainland-origin food and drinks that still exists within some sectors of Hong Kong society, even as Hong Kongers have grown increasingly open to shopping and dining on the cheap in mainland China in recent years.

The latest scandal started in June when the government, for the first time, awarded its offices’ drinking water-supply contracts to mainland suppliers.

XDX won the HK$52.9 million deal to supply water – which it said would be bottled on the mainland by the Guangzhou branch of Chinese manufacturer Robust Guangdong Drinking Water – to government offices on Hong Kong Island and the city’s outlying islands.

Another Hong Kong firm, Professional Trade International, would supply water from a mainland manufacturer from Dongguan, Dongwa Drinking Water, to offices in the New Territories, while AS Watson Group – owned by Hong Kong tycoon Li Ka-shing’s CK Hutchison Holdings – would provide its locally distilled water to offices in Kowloon.

The result of an open tender, the three three-year deals totalling HK$166 million were expected to save the government more than HK$16 million annually. Previously, it had a HK$143 million two-year agreement with AS Watson and Swire Coca-Cola to provide their locally produced water.

The government has been under tremendous pressure to cut costs, as Hong Kong expects to incur a fourth straight year of deficit in the current fiscal year .

XDX was separately also awarded another approximately HK$11 million worth of contracts to supply chemicals and data entry services to two other government departments.

As the new water contracts took effect in late June, local media reported that the water produced by Robust had violated mainland safety standards six times between 2014 and 2017, and that water produced by Dongwa was in 2023 found to contain excessive levels of bacteria.

The water contract awarded to Professional Trade, which sources its water from Dongwa, is still valid for now, as the water currently meets safety standards.

However, the public chatter generated from the scepticism over the quality of the mainland-sourced water provided to the government offices sparked XDX’s unravelling.

Doubts over the water were further fuelled by worries among Hong Kongers who have, according to research studies over the past decades, long perceived mainland brands as being cheap and of inferior quality.

Civil servants started expressing concerns about the water in their offices. Some ordered their own bottled water or brought their own from home. They also bombarded the Federation of Civil Service Unions with requests querying the water quality and rationale for the contract change, local media cited federation chief Leung Chau-ting as saying.

The 170,000-strong civil service represents about 5 per cent of Hong Kong’s workforce.

It got bad enough that Chief Executive John Lee felt compelled to assure public officers that the water they were given was safe to drink and that the procurement process was sound.

“The government attaches great importance to the safety of our drinking water,” Mr Lee said on Aug 3. “This is reflected in the strict requirements of our bidding and tendering process.”

But his words were called into question barely a fortnight later when XDX was found to have sourced its water from a different supplier in Dongguan rather than Guangzhou’s Robust, as it had claimed.

That is tantamount to fraud as it contradicts the information it gave the government in its tender.

This came to light after Robust, learning of reports questioning its safety standards, clarified that it had no existing business dealings with XDX.

On Aug 16, the government said it would terminate the water deal with XDX and that the police were investigating the matter. It later cancelled all contracts it had with XDX.

On Aug 17, the authorities arrested XDX director Lui Tsz-chung and his shareholder wife Chan Pik-lam on suspicion of fraud, and set up a task force to review the government’s procurement processes within three months.

Hong Kong’s AS Watson will temporarily supply water to the affected offices .

“The whole incident is problematic; there are inadequacies (in the procurement process),” treasury chief Christopher Hui admitted on Aug 19.

He revealed that XDX was the lowest bidder among the contenders, but insisted that price was not the sole deciding factor in awarding the water contracts.

The South China Morning Post, however, cited an unnamed source as saying that the tender had listed price as its sole criterion, contrary to previous tenders, which also considered firms’ governance, supply chain stability and other factors.

The scandal raises questions about whether the government does the due diligence to vet bidders at its tenders for their background and product quality, lawmaker Doreen Kong said.

Ms Kong, a solicitor by profession, told The Straits Times, however, that the main issue remained centred on whether officials had complied with procurement procedures.

“It doesn’t matter whether the products came from mainland China. Right now, we are still waiting for the government to clarify some basic information,” she said.

She called for answers from the government “as soon as possible” rather than to wait for its review to conclude in three months.

“Even big institutions make mistakes,” she said. “The key is admitting errors and addressing them… Timeliness is very important.”

Hong Kong police, late on Aug 20, said their investigations found that the Dongguan manufacturer used by XDX held the necessary licences to produce bottled water in mainland China. But samples of its water seized from the Hong Kong government offices would be tested to assess if they met safety standards, they added.

In a wry commentary posted on Facebook and widely shared among Hong Kongers, social commentator Fung Hei-kin remarked: “When the news first broke of Xin Ding Xin’s winning bid, we initially thought the water was from an old mainland brand we were unfamiliar with; as it turns out, it is in fact a counterfeit.”

“One can hardly fathom the trauma inflicted on Hong Kong’s civil servants who have had to drink not just a mainland-branded product – but a bogus one, at that,” he added.

South Korean President Lee Jae Myung delivers a speech during a press conference to mark his first 30 days in office at Yeongbingwan of Blue House on July 3, 2025 in Seoul, South Korea. Kim Min-Hee/Pool via REUTERS/File Photo Purchase Licensing Rights , opens new tab

Summary Lee and Trump to hold first summit on Monday in Washington

Trump to ask Seoul to pay more for security, official says

Both leaders share desire to engage frosty North Korea

U.S. wants Seoul to play role countering China

WASHINGTON/SEOUL, Aug 22 (Reuters) – When South Korean President Lee Jae Myung meets U.S. President Donald Trump next week for their first summit, he’ll face calls to pay more for the upkeep of American troops on the peninsula with security issues expected to be among the top agenda items.

Left largely out of the frantic trade talks that culminated in an unwritten deal last month , questions over the future of the South Korea-U.S. alliance and the approach to nuclear-armed North Korea will be a key part of the White House discussions, officials and analysts said.

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A thorny issue for Lee may be Trump’s push for Seoul to pay significantly more for the 28,500 American troops stationed in South Korea as a legacy of the 1950-1953 Korean War.

A U.S. official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said a key area of focus would be so-called burden sharing, and Trump is expected to push the South Koreans for more

Victor Cha, of Washington’s Center for Strategic and International Studies, said Seoul is providing over $1 billion a year to support the U.S. troop presence and also paid to build the largest U.S. base overseas, Camp Humphreys.

“But President Trump clearly wants more,” Cha said, noting his past calls for Seoul to pay $5 billion or even $10 billion. “He wants defence spending closer to 5% of GDP for all allies, South Korea is currently at 3.5%.”

While no decisions have been made, there are discussions within the Pentagon about removing some U.S. troops from South Korea, the U.S. official said.

To head that off, some at the Pentagon are trying to re-focus the alliance towards the threat posed by China.

While a lot will depend on Seoul’s willingness, the U.S. official said the desire was to discuss in broad terms how the alliance, and U.S. forces in South Korea, could be used to counter China.

That could bring more headaches for Lee, who has expressed full support for the U.S. alliance but vowed to take a balanced approach between Washington and Beijing.

General Xavier Brunson, commander of U.S. Forces Korea (USFK), said this month it was not a foregone conclusion that South Korea would be involved with any conflict over Taiwan, which China claims as its own.

However, he said there should be a recognition that nothing happens in the region in isolation and U.S. troops in South Korea could be needed to “solve bigger problems.” , opens new tab

Asked about more such “strategic flexibility” South Korea’s foreign ministry said it was difficult to predict USFK operations in a hypothetical situation.

“However, the operation of the USFK is carried out under close consultation and communication between South Korea and the United States,” a spokesperson said in a statement to Reuters.

Declaring that U.S. forces in South Korea have multiple missions could degrade their primary focus of deterring and defeating a North Korean attack, said Bruce Klingner, a former U.S. intelligence analyst now with the Mansfield Foundation.

“The more blatant the depiction of USFK as having an anti-China mission increases the likelihood that China will apply coercive pressure or retaliate economically against South Korea, as it did after Seoul deployed the U.S. THAAD missile defence system (in 2017).”

NORTH KOREA AND NUKES

However, Pyongyang has rebuffed attempts to revive the unprecedented diplomatic engagement seen in Trump first term and doubled down on its deepening military, economic, and political ties to Russia.

“I doubt much substance will be said on North Korea beyond committing to diplomacy and reiterating a goal of denuclearization,” said Jenny Town, of the Washington-based 38 North programme, which monitors North Korea.

Lee told Japan’s Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper on Thursday his administration would lay the groundwork to ultimately dismantle North Korea’s nuclear weapons programme, through talks with Pyongyang and close cooperation with Washington.

North Korea has repeatedly said its nuclear weapons are not open for negotiation.

South Korean Foreign Minister Cho Hyun told parliament this week South Korea could also try to use the summit to win approval to reprocess or enrich its own nuclear materials.

Despite talk from some South Korean officials about the need to attain “nuclear latency”, or the means to quickly build an atomic arsenal, Cho insisted reprocessing would be only for industrial or environmental purposes.

“Talking about our own nuclear armament or growing potential nuclear capabilities … is not helping at all with negotiations really,” he said, against a backdrop of growing domestic support for South Korea to develop its own nuclear arsenal

Daryl Kimball, executive director of the U.S.-based Arms Control Association, said there was no practical “industrial or environmental” need for South Korea to start reprocessing, nor for a domestic uranium enrichment capability for its energy programme.

Both activities are prohibited under the current U.S.-South Korea Agreement for Nuclear Cooperation because they could be used to produce nuclear bombs, he said.

“The foreign minister’s claims about the purpose of his government’s interest are hardly reassuring,” he said, adding: “Too many South Korean politicians are flirting with the idea of their country acquiring the nuclear weapons option.”

Reporting by David Brunnstrom and Idrees Ali in Washington, and Ju-min Park in Seoul; Writing by Josh Smith; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles. , opens new tab

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