President Donald Trump and South Korean President Lee Jae-myung held their first summit at the White House on 25 Aug., with the South Korean leader praising Trump as the "only person" capable of making progress with North Korea. Lee called the U.S. president a "peacemaker" and pledged to act as a "pacemaker" in support, saying the Korean Peninsula had been more stable during Trump’s first term than under the previous U.S. administration. Lee asked Trump to pursue a new meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, and Trump said he “looked forward” to seeing Kim later this year, reiterating his “very good relationship” with the North Korean ruler and predicting “big progress” was possible. The two leaders presented a united front on the goal of renewed diplomacy with Pyongyang, which has continued to expand its nuclear and missile programs. The session unfolded more smoothly than some Seoul officials had feared. Hours before the talks, Trump posted on social media that events in South Korea looked like a "purge or revolution," prompting Lee’s aides to worry about a repeat of the tense Oval Office exchange the U.S. president had with Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskiy in February. Lee later said his familiarity with Trump’s negotiating style, including from reading “The Art of the Deal,” helped avert any confrontation. Major policy details remain unresolved. Negotiators have yet to settle how much Seoul will contribute toward the cost of keeping 28,500 U.S. troops on the peninsula, and an outline agreement on tariffs is still being drafted. Analysts said both leaders focused on personal rapport and avoided thorny trade and defense issues, leaving follow-up talks to determine whether the warm optics translate into substantive progress.