Lee

GYEONGJU, South Korea, Oct. 31 (Yonhap) — President Lee Jae Myung and Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. discussed ways to strengthen bilateral cooperation during summit talks Friday.

The two sides met on the margins of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit, with Lee expressing hopes for a higher level of cooperative bilateral ties through Marcos’ visit to South Korea.

“For a long time, South Korea and the Philippines have supported and cooperated with one another as friendly nations,” Lee said, noting Manila’s deployment of troops in support of South Korea during the 1950-53 Korean War.

Marcos said the two countries have reached multiple milestones in ties, citing the signing of a bilateral free trade deal, and cooperation in the defense and security sectors.

Lee also thanked Marcos for the creation of a “Korean help desk” within the Philippine police to deal with cases involving South Korean nationals, according to presidential spokesperson Kim Nam-jun.

The two sides agreed to strengthen cooperation in areas such as defense, shipbuilding and infrastructure, as well as for regional coordination to stamp out transnational crime, including scam centers, he said.

Lee also said he would make efforts for “peaceful co-existence” on the Korean Peninsula, while Marcos pledged his country will cooperate in such efforts as the upcoming chair of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations next year, Kim added.

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GYEONGJU, South Korea — The United States and South Korea advanced trade talks on Wednesday, addressing details of $350 billion that would be invested in the American economy, after negotiations and ceremonies that included the presentation of a gold medal and crown to President Trump.

Both were gifts from the country’s president, Lee Jae Myung, who dialed up the flattery while Washington and Seoul worked to nail down financial promises during the last stop of Trump’s Asia trip.

Although both sides said progress has been made — Trump said things were “pretty much finalized” — no agreement has been signed yet. The framework includes gradual investments, cooperation on shipbuilding and the lowering of Trump’s tariffs on South Korea’s automobile exports, according to Kim Yong-beom, Lee’s chief of staff for policy. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The announcement came after a day of adulation for the visiting American president from his hosts. There was a special lunch menu featuring U.S.-raised beef and a gold-adorned brownie. A band played Trump’s campaign anthem of “Y.M.C.A.” when he stepped off Air Force One. Lee told him that “you are indeed making America great again.”

Trump can be mercurial and demanding, but he has a soft spot for pomp and circumstance. He was particularly impressed by a choreographed display of colorful flags as he walked along the red carpet.

“That was some spectacle, and some beautiful scene,” Trump told Lee during their meeting. “It was so perfect, so flawlessly done.”

Earlier in the day, Trump even softened his rhetoric on international trade, which he normally describes in predatory terms where someone is always trying to rip off the United States.

“The best deals are deals that work for everybody,” he said during a business forum.

Trade deal with Seoul in process

Trump was visiting while South Korea is hosting the annual Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in the historical city of Gyeongju. He previously stopped in Japan, where he bonded with the new prime minister, and Malaysia, where he attended a summit of the Assn. of Southeast Asian Nations.

The Republican president has been trying to tie up trade deals along the way, eager to show that his confrontational approach of tariffs is paying dividends for Americans who are uneasy about the job market and watching a federal government shutdown extend into its fifth week.

South Korea has been particularly tough to crack, with the sticking point being Trump’s demand for $350 billion of direct investment in the U.S.

Korean officials say putting up cash could destabilize their own economy, and they’d rather offer loans and loan guarantees instead. The country would also need a swap line to manage the flow of its currency into the U.S.

Trump, after meeting with Lee, said “we made our deal pretty much finalized.” He did not provide any details.

Oh Hyunjoo, a deputy national security director for South Korea, told reporters earlier in the week that the negotiations have been proceeding “a little bit more slowly” than expected.

“We haven’t yet been able to reach an agreement on matters such as the structure of investments, their formats and how the profits will be distributed,” she said Monday.

It’s a contrast from Trump’s experience in Japan, where the government has worked to deliver the $550 billion in investments it promised as part of an earlier trade agreement. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick announced up to $490 billion in specific commitments during a dinner with business leaders in Tokyo.

For now, South Korea is stuck with a 25% tariff on automobiles, putting automakers such as Hyundai and Kia at a disadvantage against Japanese and European competitors, which face 15%.

Lee, speaking at the business forum before Trump arrived, warned against trade barriers.

“At a time when protectionism and nationalism are on the rise and nations focus on their immediate survival, words like ‘cooperation,’ ‘coexistence’ and ‘inclusive growth’ may sound hollow,” he said. “Yet, paradoxically, it is in times of crisis like this that APEC’s role as a platform for solidarity shines brighter.”

Trump and Lee swap praise

Lee took office in June and had a warm meeting with Trump at the White House in August, when he praised Oval Office renovations and suggested building a Trump Tower in North Korea.

He took a similar approach when Trump visited on Wednesday. The gold medal presented to Trump represents the Grand Order of Mugunghwa, the country’s highest honor, and Trump is the first U.S. president to receive it.

Trump said, “It’s as beautiful as it can possibly be” and “I’d like to wear it right now.”

Next was a replica of a royal crown from the Silla Kingdom, which existed from 57 B.C. to 935 A.D. The original crown was found in a tomb in Gyeongju, the kingdom’s capital.

Besides trade disagreements, there have been other points of tension between Washington and Seoul this year. More than 300 South Koreans were detained during a U.S. immigration raid on a Hyundai plant in Georgia in September, sparking outrage and betrayal.

Lee said at the time companies would likely hesitate to make future investments unless the visa system was improved.

“If that’s not possible, then establishing a local factory in the United States will either come with severe disadvantages or become very difficult for our companies,” he said.

Asked Monday about the immigration raid, Trump said, “I was opposed to getting them out,” and he said an improved visa system would make it easier for companies to bring in skilled workers.

Trump-Xi meeting is expected Thursday

While in South Korea, Trump is also expected to hold a closely watched meeting on Thursday with Chinese leader Xi Jinping. Washington and Beijing have clashed over trade, but both sides have indicated that they’re willing to dial down tensions.

Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One on Wednesday that he expects to lower tariffs targeting China over the flow of fentanyl ingredients.

“They’ll be doing what they can do,” he said. Trump added that “China is going to be working with me.”

Trump sounded resigned to the idea that he wouldn’t get to meet North Korean leader Kim Jong Un on this trip. The president previously floated the possibility of extending his stay in South Korea, but on Wednesday said “the schedule was very tight.”

North Korea has so far dismissed overtures from Washington and Seoul, saying it won’t resume diplomacy with the United States unless Washington drops its demand for the North’s denuclearization. North Korea said Wednesday it fired sea-to-surface cruise missiles into its western waters, in the latest display of its growing military capabilities as Trump visits South Korea.

Trump brushed off the weapons test, saying, “He’s been launching missiles for decades, right?”

The two leaders met during Trump’s first term, although their conversations did not produce any agreements about North Korea’s nuclear program.

Megerian writes for the Associated Press. AP writers Kim Tong-hyung and Hyung-jin Kim contributed to this report from Seoul and Josh Boak contributed from Tokyo.

Fortunately for avid bibliophiles, Harper Lee was an inveterate pack rat. Born in rural Monroeville, Ala., in 1926, the author of “To Kill a Mockingbird” — whose first name is Nelle, her grandmother Ellen’s name spelled backward — spent much of her adult life in Manhattan after moving there in 1949.

First, she lived in a cold-water flat on the Upper East Side (subsisting on peanut butter sandwiches and meager bookstore and airline ticket agent salaries); then in a room in a Midtown hotel where Edith Wharton and Mark Twain once resided; a third-floor York Avenue walk-up ($20 a month for five years, where “Go Set a Watchman” and “To Kill a Mockingbird” were written); and, finally four decades at 433 E. 82nd St. There, amid “piles of her correspondence and practically every pay stub, telephone bill and canceled check ever issued to her, were notebooks and manuscripts” and eight previously unpublished early short stories and eight once-published essays and magazine articles. Those writings, discovered in her New York City apartment after she died in her Alabama hometown nine years ago, have been gathered into the welcome hybrid compendium “The Land of Sweet Forever.”

The short stories take up the first half of the collection, but it’s an unusual selection in the second half, “Essays and Miscellaneous Pieces,” that may reveal as much about the burgeoning author as the fictional juvenilia. In a contribution to “The Artists’ & Writers’ Cookbook” (1961), along with entries by Lillian Hellman, William Styron and Marianne Moore, Lee offered a one-page recipe for crackling bread, complete with the authorial observation, “some historians say by which alone fell the Confederacy.” The opening instruction is, “First, catch your pig.” After that, the ingredients (water-ground white meal, salt, baking powder, egg, milk) and directions might just as well function as an analogy for the process of writing and editing a manuscript.

In her introduction, Lee’s appointed biographer Casey Cep observes that it “takes enormous patience and unerring instincts to refine a scrap of story into something … keen and moving.” Lee admits to being “more of a rewriter than a writer.” In a 1950 letter to one of her sisters, she outlines her typical writing day, working through at least three drafts:

From around noon, work on the first draft. By dinnertime, I’ve usually put my idea down. I then stop for a sandwich or a full meal, depending on whether I’ve got to think more about the story or just finish it. After dinner, I work on a second draft, which involves sometimes tearing the story up and putting it together again in an entirely different way, or just keeping at it until everything is like I want it. Then I retype it on white paper, conforming to rules of manuscript preparation, and run out & mail it. That sounds simple, but sometimes I have worked through the night on one; usually I end up around two or three in the morning.

It’s all rather like testing, perfecting a recipe. If the product was these eight short stories, then “yes, chef” has baked a perfect loaf.

Each story illuminates Lee’s quintessential talents as the “balladeer of small-town culture” and the chronicler of city life. They display narrative skills, an acute ear for dialogue (especially the vernacular), development of fully rounded characters and vivid descriptions of settings. They also introduce subjects and significant themes — family, friendship, moral compass — that reappear in her nonfiction and novels.

Country life imposes restrictions on childhood characters in the first three stories. In “The Water Tank” anxious 12-year-old Abby Henderson, reacting to schoolyard rumors, believes she’s pregnant because she hugged a boy whose pants were unbuttoned. Anti-authoritarian first grader Dody (one of Harper’s nicknames) in “The Binoculars” is chastised for not tracing but writing her name on the blackboard. Early glimpses of “Mockingbird’s” Scout and Atticus Finch appear in the amusing “The Pinking Shears” when third grader “little Jean Louie” (without the later “s”) undermines gender rules when she whacks off a rambunctious minister’s daughter’s lengthy locks.

In New York City, where “sooner or later you meet everybody you ever knew on Fifth Avenue,” urban stress leads to a shocking monologue with an incendiary conclusion about feuding neighbors in “A Roomful of Kibble,” a frivolous kind of parlor game involving movie titles in “The Viewer and the Viewed,” and a humorous parking incident when one friend agrees to help another with lighting for a fashion show in “This Is Show Business?”

The closing title short story, “The Land of Sweet Forever,” adeptly merges locations and themes. It opens with a satirical nod to Jane Austen’s “Pride and Prejudice”: “It is a truth generally acknowledged by the citizens of Maycomb, Ala., that a single woman in possession of little else but a good knowledge of English social history must be in want of someone to talk to.” When adult Jean Louise (now with the “s”) leaves the city for home, she has a hilarious church encounter with someone she hadn’t seen since they were children, 21-year-old Talbert Wade, now with the taint of three years as an economics major at Northwestern University and a patina full of Europe, looking “suspiciously as if he had returned from a tour and had picked up a Brooks Brothers suit on the way home.” Together, they are trying to understand why the doxology, always sung “in one way and one way only” suddenly has been “pepped up” with an energetic organ accompaniment. Before it’s resolved there is an amusing anecdote about a cow obituary in verse and a concluding bow to Voltaire’s “Candide” when Jean Louise concedes that “all things happen for the best in this, the best of all possible worlds.” The story is a resounding example of Lee’s scintillating sense of wry humor.

Big themes of love, family and friendship recur in the eight previously published essays and articles (from 1961 to 2006) that appeared in Vogue, McCall’s, an American Film Institute program (about Gregory Peck), a Book of the Month Club newsletter (on the “little boy next door” Truman Capote and “In Cold Blood”), Alabama History and Heritage Festival, and O, the Oprah Magazine (a letter about the joy of learning to read). In addition to the crackling bread recipe that serves as a fingerpost to Lee’s writing process, the standout essay “Christmas to Me” details how she received a generous gift that changed her life, allowing her to become an accomplished, published writer. In 1956, best friends, lyricist-composer Michael Brown and his wife, Joy, surprised her with an envelope on the tree with a note, “You have one year off from your job to write whatever you please. Merry Christmas.” That meant $100 every month, covering more than five times her rent.

Juvenilia is tricky. It can be evanescent, exposing weaknesses or revealing strengths and talent. “The Land of Sweet Forever” reinforces Lee’s indelible voice, contributing a rewarding addition and resource to the slim canon of her literary legacy.

The recipe for crackling bread:

First, catch your pig. Then ship it to the abattoir nearest you. Bake what they send back. Remove the solid fat and throw the rest away. Fry fat, drain off liquid grease, and combine the residue (called “cracklings”) with:

1 ½ cups water-ground white meal
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 egg
1 cup milk

Bake in very hot oven until brown (about 15 minutes).

Result: one pan crackling bread serving 6. Total cost: about $250, depending upon size of pig. Some historians say by this recipe alone fell the Confederacy.

Papinchak, a former English professor, is a freelance book critic in Los Angeles. He has also contributed interviews to Bon Appetit.

Victoria’s Secret called game.

WNBA player Angel Reese and Olympic gymnast Suni Lee walked the 2025 edition of the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show on Wednesday, becoming the first major athletes to hit the runway at the lingerie and loungewear brand’s signature event.

Reese, a forward for the Chicago Sky, was part of the high-profile “Wings Reveal” lineup, with the two-time All-Star debuting two looks at the event. The first was a pink floral lingerie set paired with a feathered stole, while the second featured the brand’s iconic angel wings. She is the first professional athlete to walk the show.

“It was destined for me,” Reese reportedly said in an interview before the show kicked off. “This is already for me. I’m so happy to be sitting in this room with so many amazing models and women. The team that put this all together has been amazing. I’m so excited.”

Angel Reese debuted two looks at the 2025 Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show.

(Evan Agostini / Invision / Associated Press)

The 2025 Victoria Secret’s Fashion Show may have marked her professional modeling debut, but Reese has long been a fashion icon. She’s known for her sharp arrival looks as much as her rebounding prowess among women’s basketball fans and she even served as a member of the 2025 Met Gala’s host committee. Reese capped off her standout college career, which included an NCAA championship title with Louisiana State University in 2023, by declaring for the WNBA draft in a 2024 Vogue interview and has since graced that magazine’s cover.

Two-time Olympian Lee, meanwhile, made her fashion show debut as part of the segment dedicated to VS’ Pink line, sporting short shorts and a pink hoodie adorned with miniature wings. She hit the runway while four members of the K-pop group Twice were performing live.

Suni Lee makes her Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show debut.

(Dimitrios Kambouris / Getty Images for Victoria’s Secret)

“Stepping into something like the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show felt like a dream outside of my comfort zone … But that’s exactly why I said yes,” Lee told Marie Claire in an interview before the show where she described her runway look as “sporty meets glam in the best way.”

Lee, of course, was part of the “Golden Girls” squad alongside Simone Biles that brought home the team gold at the 2024 Paris Olympics. Among her six Olympic medals is also the all-around gold from the 2020 Games in Tokyo, which were held in 2021 due to pandemic restrictions. The Minnesota native also competed as part of Auburn University’s gymnastics team.

The surviving members of progressive rock titans Rush will reunite for a 50th anniversary tour in 2026.

Rush co-founders Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson will play 12 dates in honor of the band’s late drummer Neil Peart, whose monumental percussion talents made Rush a defining act in prog rock. The tour will begin June 7 at the Kia Forum — the site of the band’s last show with Peart in 2015.

“After all that has gone down since that last show, Alex and I have done some serious soul searching and come to the decision that we f— miss it,” Lee said in a statement announcing the tour. “And that it’s time for a celebration of 50-something years of Rush music.”

The question of a Rush reunion without Peart, who died of brain cancer in 2020, was a fraught one. Even up to last year, Lifeson had told Rolling Stone that “there’s no chance that we’re going to get a drummer and go back on the road as the rebirth of Rush or something like that.”

For this tour, the band will be joined by Anika Nilles, a German drummer acclaimed for her work with Jeff Beck.

“As we all know, Neil was irreplaceable,” Lee said in the band’s statement. “Yet life is full of surprises, and we’ve been introduced to another remarkable person; an incredible drummer and musician who is adding another chapter to our story while continuing her own fascinating musical journey. Her name is Anika Nilles, and we could not be more excited to introduce her to our loyal and dedicated Rush fan base, whom, we know, will give her every chance to live up to that near-impossible role.”

In their own statement, Peart’s wife Carrie Nuttall-Peart and daughter Olivia gave their blessing for the tour: “We are thrilled to support the Fifty Something Tour, celebrating a band whose music has resonated and inspired fans for generations, and to honor Neil’s extraordinary legacy as both a drummer and lyricist.”

SEOUL, Oct. 6 (UPI) — A Seoul court accepted the petition of Lee Jin-sook, the former head of the now-defunct Korean Communications Commission, to be released from detention on Saturday.

Lee was arrested on Thursday on charges of violating election law and breaching public neutrality. The allegations centered around her making partisan remarks on conservative YouTube channels and social media, which prosecutors said were aimed at obstructing the election of President Lee Jae Myung.

Police said that they executed the warrant after the head of the former broadcasting watchdog failed to respond to six summonses for questioning. Lee, however, claimed that the police had agreed on a scheduled appearance date and issued the summonses to build a justification for her arrest.

Her arrest occurred a day after the KCC was abolished as part of a politically contentious government reorganization, which automatically ended her term at the commission. Lee had been appointed to a three-year term in July 2024 by former President Yoon Suk Yeol, who was impeached over his botched martial law attempt and removed from office in April.

Lee’s lawyers filed a petition requesting a judicial review of the lawfulness of her arrest, which the Seoul Southern District Court heard on Saturday. The court granted her request for release, with Chief Judge Kim Dong-hyun saying the arrest was “not justified at this stage.”

In the court’s decision, Judge Kim said that the investigation had already been conducted to a substantial extent and that the facts in the case were not in dispute, noting that Lee had promised to attend future hearings.

The court did not deny that the arrest may have had legal grounds, Kim added, and acknowledged that further investigation was necessary.

Lee was released from detention at Yeongdeungpo Police Station in Seoul shortly after the ruling and placed the responsibility for her arrest on President Lee Jae Myung.

“The scene you are seeing implies that if you disobey the president, you too could end up in detention,” she said to reporters, as opposition People Power Party lawmakers and conservative supporters gathered outside the station.

“The judiciary has freed us from the handcuffs imposed by the police and prosecutors,” she added. “It gives me hope that democracy still exists in some corner of South Korea.”

SEOUL, Oct. 3 (UPI) — South Korean President Lee Jae Myung on Friday called for North Korea to allow families separated by the 1950-53 Korean War to hold reunions or exchange letters.

Lee made the remarks while meeting with elderly citizens who had relatives in the North ahead of Chuseok, the mid-autumn festival that is one of Korea’s most important holidays.

“I strongly urge the North to consider these unfortunate circumstances from a humanitarian perspective,” Lee said at the Ganghwa Peace Observatory in Incheon, which overlooks North Korea.

“I believe that it is the responsibility of all political leaders in both the South and the North to ensure that these tragically separated families can confirm the fate of their relatives and, at the very least, exchange letters,” he said, according to his office. He added that the families should ideally be able to meet again in person.

North and South Korea have held 21 family reunions since 2000, with the last one taking place in August 2018 during a period of inter-Korean detente.

Relations have frozen over for the past several years, however, and time is not on the side of the family members who are still hoping to connect with their long-lost relatives.

Over 134,000 South Koreans have registered to participate in family reunions since 1988, but only 35,311 were still alive as of August, according to data from the South’s Unification Ministry. Some two-thirds of people on the list are over the age of 80.

In February, North Korea began dismantling the facility used for family reunions at its Mount Kumgang tourist zone, a further sign of deteriorating relations.

Lee’s administration has made efforts to reduce tensions between the two Koreas since he took office in June, with conciliatory gestures such as removing propaganda loudspeakers from border areas.

In an address to the U.N. General Assembly last week, Lee unveiled a peace initiative that seeks engagement and normalization with the North.

SEOUL, Oct. 2 (UPI) — South Korean President Lee Jae Myung on Thursday apologized for the country’s troubled history of overseas adoptions, acknowledging that “unjust human rights violations” occurred and vowing stronger safeguards going forward.

“South Korea once bore the shameful stigma of being a ‘child exporter,'” Lee said in a Facebook post.

“While some found loving adoptive families, many suffered their entire lives due to the irresponsibility and inaction of certain adoption agencies,” he said. “My heart is heavy when I think of the anxiety, pain, and confusion of international adoptees who were thrown alone into a foreign land at a young age.”

In March, a long-awaited report by South Korea’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission found that the government violated adoptees’ rights as it sought to expedite overseas adoptions rather than strengthen domestic welfare programs. The report highlighted fraudulent practices such as document falsification, infant substitution and inadequate vetting of adoptive parents.

At least 170,000 South Korean children and babies were sent overseas since the end of the 1950-53 Korean War, particularly in the 1970s and 1980s as the country went through a period of explosive economic growth.

Lee noted that even in the 2020s, long after South Korea had become an economic power, an average of more than 100 children per year were still being sent abroad for adoption.

Acknowledging the “unjust human rights violations” cited in the TRC report, Lee said that there were instances where the government “failed to fulfill its role in this process.”

“On behalf of the Republic of Korea, I offer my sincere apologies and condolences to the international adoptees, their families, and their families of origin who have suffered,” he said.

The president’s remarks came one day after South Korea formally became a party to the Hague Adoption Convention, an international treaty meant to establish safeguards for intercountry adoptions. Seoul ratified the treaty in July, some 12 years after signing the pact.

Moving ahead, Lee called on government ministries to “protect the rights of adoptees and establish a human rights-centered adoption system.”

“I also urge them to devise effective support measures to help international adoptees find their roots,” he added.

Artificial intelligence and its invasiveness in our everyday lives might be endlessly discussed among academics, government officials and social media provocateurs, but Los Angeles Comic Con has injected a dose of gamma radiation and showmanship into that debate.

Stan Lee has entered the chat.

L.A. Comic Con is introducing its Stan Lee Experience, a 1,500-square-foot booth in Aisle 200 that features an AI-powered holographic image of the late comic book legend that interacts with attendees. Curious fans can ask questions of “Stan Lee” and probe dozens of years’ worth of comic book and comic book-related data that’s been fed into the AI, which has been drawn from footage, conversations and even Stan Lee’s Soapbox — where Lee would expand on happenings of the day or riff on comic book goings-on in the back pages of Marvel comics from 1967 through 1980.

Chris DeMoulin, chief executive and general manager of L.A. Comic Con parent Comikaze Entertainment Inc., says the Stan Lee AI project took months of planning and years of being connected to the parties involved.

“For me, personally, one of the most thrilling things of my entire life was getting to work with Stan Lee when this was Stan Lee’s Comic Con and Stan Lee’s Comikaze Expo before that. What was such a joy was watching him interact with fans. Old fans and then people that were bringing their 8-year-old kid who had just read their first Spider-Man comic book,” said DeMoulin, who has collected comics from an early age.

“This avatar, to us, is an entry point into the world of storytelling that he created. We wanted to create something which can be part of maintaining and expanding on that legacy so that Stan’s role in creating a lot of this is acknowledged.”

The hologram, at least the one on the show floor, is not really a hologram. With a box built by Proto Inc., the company that also launched an interactive mirror from “The Conjuring,” and Hyperreal, a company whose chief executive Remington Scott helped bring Gollum and Smeagol to life for Peter Jackson’s “The Lord of the Rings” movies and creates realistic avatars, it is an interactive Stan Lee image that processes questions and formulates responses.

“Hologram is a technology that’s different than this. This is more of an avatar presence, or a telepresence, if you will. Unlike ChatGPT, this is not a web crawler. This is a large language model which has got guardrails on it,” says George Johnson, a member of the Hyperreal technical team.

“It’s specifically Stan’s words. Red carpet interviews, everything he wrote, like Stan’s Soapbox, but with guardrails. Meaning, if you ask him sports questions or politics questions, he’s not going to answer those. But the Stan Lee Universe is feeding us more and more stuff that we can add to the model.”

David Nussbaum, Proto Inc. founder and chairman, knows that Stan Lee is only the first step for this technology.

“Any Proto device can have any piece of content in it, and we also beam people in live. So if you’re interviewing someone in Japan, you could beam there and appear like you are physically among them,” Nussbaum said. “These are great for classrooms, museums, labs, retail.”

Proto technology is also HIPAA-compliant, he said, meaning doctors and patients can use it to have “in-person” consultations without being in a room together.

As it learns, it can — as AI does — go a bit off script. While folks behind the scenes said they didn’t want Stan Lee to be used as an advertising gimmick, its makers had asked it so many questions about Coca-Cola, it had changed its answer from a generic “I don’t deal with that kind of thing” to a thoughtful answer where, at the end, Lee says, “Who wouldn’t want to be in business with the company that been quenching thirsts for a hundred years?”

That was Stan — ever the showman.

The Stan Lee Experience costs $15 plus service fees with tickets available for purchase via the L.A. Comic Con website. The pop culture gathering runs through Sunday at the Los Angeles Convention Center.

At midseason, junior quarterback Taylor Lee of Oxnard Pacifica is a revelation, someone who didn’t start last season and has thrust himself into MVP consideration with 19 touchdown passes in his last three games and 26 in five games for the unbeaten Tritons (5-0).

“He’s amazing,” L.A. Hamilton coach Elijah Asante said. “Someone’s going to get a real good quarterback. The kid can play.”

On Thursday afternoon, Hamilton and Pacifica decided to play each other after both schools were given forfeit victories. Instead of taking the forfeits, they played at Hamilton, and Pacifica won 42-14 with a running clock through much of the second half.

Lee completed nine of 10 passes for 215 yards and four touchdowns.

He could have thrown touchdowns all night but Hamilton was able to run off plenty of time in the first half with short passes until drives were halted by a fumble and interception. Freshman quarterback Thaddeus Breaux completed 31 of 45 passes for 270 yards, with touchdown passes to Kristian Leslie and Jacob Riley. Leslie caught 16 passes for 125 yards.

What’s impressive about Lee is his ability to run Pacifica’s no-huddle, quick tempo offense. At the end of the second quarter, he moved the team quickly down field in 30 seconds, completing four consecutive passes for 82 yards and ending with a two-yard touchdown pass to Will Jones Jr. for a 28-0 halftime lead. It was like watching Corona Centennial’s effective no-huddle offense.

“We try to do it that way,” coach Mike Moon said.

Lee has benefited from a receiving group he’s known for years through youth football.

“I’ve been playing with the receivers since I was 6,” Lee said.

There’s also the offensive line made up of seniors.

“They’re my best friends,” Lee said.

Pacifica has to keep improving with its Marmonte League opener against Oaks Christian next week.

Hamilton (2-3) starts Western League play next week against Fairfax.

Thursday’s game brought no injuries and lots of sportsmanship. Both coaches were thrilled to have the opportunity to play. “A blessing,” Moon said.

SEOUL, South Korea — South Korea’s president said Thursday that Korean companies probably will hesitate to make further investments in the United States unless Washington improves its visa system for their employees, as U.S. authorities released hundreds of workers who were detained at a Georgia factory site last week.

In a news conference marking 100 days in office, Lee Jae Myung called for improvements in the U.S. visa system as he spoke about the Sept. 4 immigration raid that resulted in the arrest of more than 300 South Korean workers at a battery factory under construction at Hyundai’s sprawling auto plant west of Savannah.

South Korea’s Foreign Ministry later confirmed that U.S. authorities had released the 330 detainees — 316 of them South Koreans — and that they were being transported by buses to Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson airport, where they will board a charter flight scheduled to arrive in South Korea on Friday afternoon. The group also includes 10 Chinese nationals, three Japanese nationals and one Indonesian.

The massive roundup and U.S. authorities’ release of video showing some workers being chained and taken away sparked widespread anger and a sense of betrayal in South Korea. The raid came less than two weeks after a summit between President Trump and Lee, and just weeks after the countries reached a July agreement that spared South Korea from the Trump administration’s highest tariffs — but only after Seoul pledged $350 billion in new U.S. investments, against the backdrop of a decaying job market at home.

Lawmakers from both Lee’s Liberal Democratic Party and the conservative opposition decried the detentions as outrageous and heavy-handed, while South Korea’s biggest newspaper compared the raid to a “rabbit hunt” executed by U.S. immigration authorities in a zeal to meet an alleged White House goal of 3,000 arrests a day.

During the news conference, Lee said South Korean and U.S. officials are discussing a possible improvement to the U.S. visa system, adding that under the current system South Korean companies “can’t help hesitating a lot” about making direct investments in the U.S.

Lee: ‘It’s not like these are long-term workers’

U.S. authorities said some of the detained workers had illegally crossed the U.S. border, while others entered legally but had expired visas or entered on visa waivers that prohibited them from working.

But South Korean officials expressed frustration that Washington has yet to act on Seoul’s years-long demand to ensure a visa system to accommodate skilled Korean workers, though it has been pressing South Korea to expand U.S. industrial investments.

South Korean companies have been mostly relying on short-term visitor visas or Electronic System for Travel Authorization to send workers who are needed to launch manufacturing sites and handle other setup tasks, a practice that had been largely tolerated for years.

Lee said that whether Washington establishes a visa system allowing South Korean companies to send skilled workers to industrial sites will have a “major impact” on future South Korean investments in America.

“It’s not like these are long-term workers. When you build a factory or install equipment at a factory, you need technicians, but the United States doesn’t have that workforce and yet they won’t issue visas to let our people stay and do the work,” he said.

“If that’s not possible, then establishing a local factory in the United States will either come with severe disadvantages or become very difficult for our companies. They will wonder whether they should even do it,” Lee added.

Lee said the raid showed a “cultural difference” between the two countries in how they handle immigration issues.

“In South Korea, we see Americans coming on tourist visas to teach English at private cram schools — they do it all the time, and we don’t think much of it, it’s just something you accept,” Lee said.

“But the United States clearly doesn’t see things that way. On top of that, U.S. immigration authorities pledge to strictly forbid illegal immigration and employment and carry out deportations in various aggressive ways, and our people happened to be caught in one of those cases,” he added.

South Korea, U.S. agree on working group to settle visa issues

After a meeting with U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio in Washington, South Korean Foreign Minister Cho Hyun said Wednesday that U.S. officials have agreed to allow the workers detained in Georgia to later return to finish their work at the site. He added that the countries agreed to set up a joint working group for discussions on creating a new visa category to make it easier for South Korean companies to send their staff to work in the United States.

Before leaving for the U.S. on Monday, Cho said more South Korean workers in the U.S. could be vulnerable to future crackdowns if the visa issue isn’t resolved, but said Seoul does not yet have an estimate of how many might be at risk.

The State Department announced Thursday that Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau would visit Seoul this weekend as part of a three-nation Asia-Pacific trip that will also include Papua New Guinea and the Marshall Islands.

The Georgia battery plant is one of more than 20 major industrial sites that South Korean companies are building in the United States. They include other battery factories in Georgia and several other states, a semiconductor plant in Texas and a shipbuilding project in Philadelphia, a sector that Trump has frequently highlighted in relation to South Korea.

Min Jeonghun, a professor at South Korea’s National Diplomatic Academy, said it’s chiefly up to the United States to resolve the issue, either through legislation or by taking administrative steps to expand short-term work visas for training purposes.

Without an update in U.S. visa policies, Min said, “Korean companies will no longer be able to send their workers to the United States, causing inevitable delays in the expansion of facilities and other production activities, and the harm will boomerang back to the U.S. economy.”

Hyung-jin and Tong-Hyung write for the Associated Press. Tong-Hyung reported from Seoul.

In the beginning, it was 1981 and bassist Nikki Sixx left London, the glam metal band he’d formed in Hollywood three years earlier, to start a new project with drummer Tommy Lee. Then, they pulled in guitarist Mick Mars, who responded to the duo’s classified ad for a “loud, rude, and aggressive guitar player,” and eventually persuaded singer Vince Neil, a former classmate of Lee’s, to leave his band Rock Candy for Mötley Crüe.

From its start with 1981 debut “Too Fast for Love,” Mötley Crüe lived up to its mismatched epithet, from its diabolical breakout “Shout at the Devil” in 1983 to the late ‘80s with its most commercially successful release, “Dr. Feelgood.”

Addictions, near-death experiences, hiatuses, departures and reunions — Mötley Crüe survived them all. Each step on its musical journey is commemorated on “From the Beginning,” an album that includes the band’s first single “Live Wire” through its most recent track, “Dogs of War,” released 43 years later. The band also revived a Mötley Crüe classic with a newly recorded version of its “Theatre of Pain” ballad “Home Sweet Home,” featuring Dolly Parton, which reentered the charts in 2025 at No. 1, 40 years after the original recording’s release.

“Mötley Crüe and Dolly Parton together is the ultimate clickbait,” says Sixx, with a laugh. He previously played bass on the country legend’s 2023 “Rockstar” album. “I guess it’s part of that wow factor that has been part of the Mötley Crüe fabric for a long time.”

Proceeds from the new recording of “Home Sweet Home” benefit Covenant House, the nonprofit with which the band has partnered for nearly 20 years through its Mötley Crüe Giveback Initiative. Sixx first worked with Covenant House around the publication of his 2007 memoir, “The Heroin Diaries,” and helped develop a music program at the Hollywood center. In October 2024, the band also played a series of intimate club shows, dubbed Höllywood Takeöver, at the Troubadour, the Roxy and Whisky a Go Go in West Hollywood, which helped raise $350,000 for the organization.

“These kids are everything,” says Sixx. “These kids are the future. They might end up changing the world. What if one of these kids can cure cancer and they just didn’t have a shot?”

Playing those smaller shows in 2024, which also included the Underworld in Camden, London, and the Bowery Ballroom in New York City, is the bare-bones sound, much like rehearsals, that Sixx has always loved.

“One of my favorite parts about being in a band is rehearsal,” he says. “There’s nothing like it. It’s raw, just bass, drums, guitar, and vocals off the floor. Then, you add all the bells and whistles as you go along. When we can do things like that, it just reminds me who we are.”

It’s also part of what keeps Lee excited at this stage of the band’s career, which includes its third residency in Las Vegas in 13 years, which kicked off last week and runs through Oct. 3 at the Dolby Live at Park MGM. (A portion of the ticket proceeds from the 10-show residency will benefit the Nevada Partnership for Homeless Youth.)

“I’ve been married to Nikki and Vince for over 44 years,” says Lee. “Like with any marriage, you gotta create ways to make it exciting, to keep it fun, or else you find yourselves at the breakfast table, with your face in the paper saying ‘Pass the butter.’ So Vegas in Dolby Atmos, new music, club shows, crazy videos, Dolly — we’ve always been trying different stuff to make the audience and us go ‘Oh, f— yeah.”

For Mötley Crüe, Las Vegas has nearly become a second home since the band’s first residency at the Joint at the Hard Rock Hotel in 2012 and its “An Intimate Evening in Hell” a year later.

“We’ve got this great body of work that you don’t really realize until you get this far,” says Sixx. “But now, we’re in one of those interesting places where, if we don’t play the hits, we get
s—, and if we do play the hits, we get s—.”

“From the Beginning” is Mötley Crüe’s new compilation album.

(Chris Walter)

Some deeper Crüe cuts worth inclusion in the set include “Stick to Your Guns,” a non-single on “Too Fast for Love,” and a song that the Runaways’ ex-manager, producer Kim Fowley, asked a then-teenaged Sixx to write for Blondie in 1979.

“I was 17 years old, and we recorded that song, and because no record company would sign us, we started our own label and got a distribution deal,” Sixx recalls. “When we finally joint-ventured up with Elektra Records in ’82, they said we needed to take a song off since it made the vinyl sound thinner, so ‘Stick to Your Guns’ got cut, but I’ve always loved that song.”

Sixx recently revealed that Guns N’ Roses once considered covering the early Crüe track.

”Now I get people saying, ‘We want to hear, “Stick to Your Guns,” ’ “ says Sixx, laughing. “There’s like eight people that know that song. That’s a good way to shut down an arena.”

For Lee, there’s something more paternal around the band’s lengthy catalog.

“I know every artist says it, but our songs are like our kids,” he says. “And over the years, they grow up and they develop [their] own personalities and character. Some stay pretty close to home, settle down, and start their own family. Others go out on a Thursday night and come home on Sunday with no shoes and a shaved head, but we love them all the same.”

With every song, Lee says, the band members understand each other more. “We know how to push each other a little further, and hopefully get the greatest out of each other.”

While there’s always room to make new music, Sixx, who has been the band’s chief songwriter since its inception, prefers the pace of releasing singles.

“It’s just a different landscape now,” he says, “so to create one or two ideas, or co-write three is manageable, and it’s also digestible for the fans.”

So many things have changed, and he is also aware of some misconceptions about the band. “The music is Mötley Crüe — Mötley Crüe is not ‘The Dirt,’ ” says Sixx, citing the 2019 film based on the band’s 2001 tell-all memoir. “People have it confused because we were so honest and it became such a part of the fabric of us that they forget about the riff on ‘Kick Start My Heart’ and just remember the hotel that we tried to burn down in Ontario.”

Another misconception, Sixx says, is the band’s split with Mars in 2022. After issuing a statement that Mars had retired from touring due to his ongoing battle with ankylosing spondylitis, the guitarist sued Mötley Crüe in April 2023, alleging that he was forced out of the band and that his bandmates attempted to cut his 25% ownership stake. Guitarist John 5 — who has filled in on lead guitar duties since October 2022, prior to the lawsuit — continues to tour with the band.

“[Mick] came to us and said, health-wise, he couldn’t fulfill his contract, and we let him out of the deal,” recalls Sixx. “Then he sued us because he just said that he can’t tour. We were like, ‘Well, if you can’t tour, you can’t tour.’ I will probably come to that too someday.”

Although there was no final settlement in court between Mars and the band, a Los Angeles judge ruled in 2024 that the band failed to provide documents to Mars in a timely manner and was ordered to pay his legal fees, Loudwire reported. The underlying dispute regarding the band’s business and Mars’ potential ousting went into private arbitration.
The arbitration is still ongoing but in the first phase the arbitrator ruled in favor of the band and against Mars. The arbitration is still ongoing but in the first phase the arbitrator ruled in favor of the band and against Mick.

Mars’ claims around the band’s use of backing tracks were another point of contention and something Sixx has continued defending. He says the band started playing around with audio enhancements in 1985 and cites the “Girls Girls Girls” track “Wild Side” as a “perfect example” with its sequenced guitar parts. “Anything we enhance the shows with, we actually played,” he says. “If there are background vocals with my background vocals, and we have background singers to make it sound more like the record. That does not mean we’re not singing.”

Mars, who is currently working on his second solo album, was contacted by The Times but declined to comment for the story.

Sixx calls Mars’ accusations a “crazy betrayal” to his legacy and to the fans. “Saying he played in a band that didn’t play, it’s a betrayal to the band who saved his life,” adds Sixx. “People say things like, ‘Well, if you guys are really playing, then I need isolated tracks from band rehearsal.’ … It’s ludicrous.”

Another battle the band has found itself in involves Neil’s health problems and the criticism he’s faced following recent performances. Originally scheduled to perform in March and April, Mötley Crüe postponed its Las Vegas shows so the lead singer could undergo an undisclosed medical procedure. “He needed time to heal, and he’s been working really hard,” Sixx says.

“You can tell he’s working up the stamina, and a lot of people are like, ‘Oh, man, he’s not kicking ass like he used to,’ but it takes a lot of courage to have a doctor tell you you will probably never go onstage again and to fight through that. If he’s got some imperfect moments here and there. They’re getting erased as the days go with rehearsal.”

Back in Las Vegas, Lee has looked forward to connecting with fans again, even if those in their teens and 20s were turned on to the band via “The Dirt.”

“Our goal is the same for all: to give them an incredible show,” he says, “to leave it all on the stage.”

Now, more than 40 years into Mötley Crüe, it may have been a patchwork journey of emotions for Sixx, but he wouldn’t change the experience for anything.

“We believe in this band,” he says. “It’s been 44 years. We’ve been in the band longer than we weren’t in the band. We’ve seen everything — everything. I guess that’s why it was a movie.”

SEOUL, Sept. 11 (UPI) — South Korean President Lee Jae Myung said Thursday that last week’s “perplexing” immigration raid at a Hyundai electric battery plant in Georgia, which led to the detention of more than 300 South Korean workers, could prevent firms from making future investments in the United States.

“Companies will have to worry about whether establishing a local factory in the United States will be subject to all sorts of disadvantages or difficulties,” Lee said at a press conference in Seoul marking his 100th day in office.

“That could have a significant impact on future direct investment,” he said.

Multiple agencies led by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrested 475 people, most of whom are South Korean nationals, at a Hyundai-LG Energy Solutions battery plant near Savannah, Ga., last Thursday.

ICE and Homeland Security Investigations officials said those who were detained are not authorized to work in the United States. The raid was the largest single-site operation so far under U.S. President Donald Trump‘s mass deportation agenda.

The roundup, which came less than two weeks after Lee met with Trump in the White House, has sparked widespread public shock and anger in South Korea. In July, Seoul and Washington reached a trade deal to lower Trump’s threatened tariffs from 25% to 15%, while South Korea pledged to invest $350 billion in the United States.

“The situation is extremely perplexing,” Lee said, noting that South Korean firms regularly send skilled workers for short stays to help establish overseas factories.

“These are not long-term workers,” he said. “When setting up facilities and equipment, you need skilled technicians. You need to install the machinery and the U.S. doesn’t have the workforce locally.”

Lee added that Seoul is currently negotiating with Washington to address the visa situation through potential waivers, additional quotas or new visa categories for Korean workers.

“If the United States sees a practical need, I think the issue will be resolved,” he said. “Under the current circumstances, Korean companies will be very hesitant to make direct investments in the United States.”

Some 316 South Korean nationals and 14 foreigners will return to Seoul on a charter plane departing at 1 a.m. local time on Friday, Lee said.

The flight, initially planned for Wednesday, was delayed due to U.S. officials insisting on transporting the workers in handcuffs, Lee added. He said Seoul protested and Washington reversed its stance, citing an “instruction from the White House.”

SAVANNAH, Ga. — Some 475 people were detained during an immigration raid at a sprawling Georgia site where South Korean auto company Hyundai manufactures electric vehicles, according to a Homeland Security official.

Steven Schrank, Special Agent in Charge, Homeland Security Investigations, said at a news briefing Friday that the majority of the people detained were from South Korea.

“This operation underscores our commitment to jobs for Georgians and Americans,” Schrank said.

South Korean Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lee Jaewoong described the number of detained South Koreans as “large” though he did not provide an exact figure.

He said the detained workers were part of a “network of subcontractors,” and that the employees worked for a variety of different companies on the site.

Thursday’s raid targeted one of Georgia’s largest and most high-profile manufacturing sites, touted by the governor and other officials as the largest economic development project in the state’s history. Hyundai Motor Group, South Korea’s biggest automaker, began manufacturing EVs a year ago at the $7.6 billion plant, which employs about 1,200 people, and has partnered with LG Energy Solution to build an adjacent battery plant, slated to open next year.

In a statement to The Associated Press, LG said it was “closely monitoring the situation and gathering all relevant details.” It said it couldn’t immediately confirm how many of its employees or Hyundai workers had been detained.

“Our top priority is always ensuring the safety and well-being of our employees and partners. We will fully cooperate with the relevant authorities,” the company said.

Hyundai’s South Korean office didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.

ICE spokesman Lindsay Williams confirmed that federal authorities conducted an enforcement operation at the 3,000-acre site west of Savannah, Georgia. He said agents were focused on the construction site for the battery plant.

In a televised statement, Lee said the ministry is taking active measures to address the case, dispatching diplomats from its embassy in Washington and consulate in Atlanta to the site, and planning to form an on-site response team centered on the local mission.

“The business activities of our investors and the rights of our nationals must not be unjustly infringed in the process of U.S. law enforcement,” Lee said.

The Department of Homeland Security said in a statement that agents executed a search warrant “as part of an ongoing criminal investigation into allegations of unlawful employment practices and other serious federal crimes.”

President Trump’s administration has undertaken sweeping ICE operations as part of a mass deportation agenda. Immigration officers have raided farms, construction sites, restaurants and auto repair shops.

The Pew Research Center, citing preliminary Census Bureau data, says the U.S. labor force lost more than 1.2 million immigrants from January through July. That includes people who are in the country illegally as well as legal residents.

Kim and Bynum write for the Associated Press. Bynum reported from Savannah, Ga.

SEOUL  — The first summit between South Korean President Lee Jae Myung and President Trump was a picture of easy chumminess.

On Monday, the two leaders bonded over the fact that they both have survived assassination attempts, and they talked golf. When Trump admired the handcrafted wooden fountain pen Lee used to sign the White House guest book, saying “it’s a nice pen, you want to take it with you?” Lee offered it as an impromptu gift. At a Q&A in front of reporters, Lee thanked Trump for bringing peace to the Korean peninsula through his previous summits with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and urged him to meet with Kim again.

“If you become the peacemaker, then I will assist you by being a pacemaker,” Lee told Trump, drawing a chuckle.

These scenes, along with the two-hour closed door meeting between the two leaders that followed, seemed to put to rest fears that Lee — a former governor and legislator with little prior experience on the international stage — might be subject to a “Zelensky moment”: cornered and berated by a counterpart who has long complained that Seoul takes Washington for granted.

Karoline Leavitt, White House press secretary, holds a trade letter sent by the White House to South Korea during a news conference. On July 30, the U.S. struck a trade deal with South Korea, but details have been scant.

(Bloomberg / Bloomberg via Getty Images)

It was an outcome for which South Korea painstakingly prepared.

As a presidential candidate earlier this year, Lee had vowed he would bring home a diplomatic win at all costs, even if it meant he had to “crawl between Trump’s legs.” To smooth along trade negotiations with the U.S. in late July, South Korean officials brought with them red caps emblazoned with the slogan: “MAKE AMERICA SHIPBUILDING GREAT AGAIN.” And ahead of Monday’s summit, Lee compared notes with Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, whom he met last week, and brushed up on his assignment by reading “Trump: The Art of the Deal.”

Those early efforts so far have seemingly paid off. Key South Korean proposals, such as a $150-billion plan to help revitalize the U.S. shipbuilding industry, have been received favorably, helping secure the trade deal with Washington last month, according to South Korean officials.

“We’re going to be buying ships from South Korea,” Trump said on Monday. “But we’re also going to have them make ships here with our people.”

But despite what is widely viewed as a positive first step for Lee — establishing face-to-face chemistry with a figure known for both unpredictable swings and a deeply personal style of diplomacy — analysts say it is too early to call it a win. Several unresolved issues still loom large, and these may yet be snarled in the details as working-level negotiations play out.

“I actually thought they could get along surprisingly well because both Lee and Trump aren’t ideologically motivated in their thinking and practice of foreign policy,” said James Park, an East Asia expert at the Quincy Institute, a Washington-based think tank.

“But it remains to be seen how their relationship unfolds. Should strong tensions emerge on trade and security issues that both sides find it difficult to compromise on in the future, the relationship between Lee and Trump will be tested. There’s a case in point — how the friendship between Trump and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has fractured in recent months over tariffs and India’s purchases of Russian weapons.“

Although Trump promised on Monday to honor last month’s trade agreement — which lowered the tariff rate on Seoul to 15% from 25% — details have been scant and the deal has yet to be formalized in writing. But both sides have touted it as a win, leaving room to reignite long-running disagreements over issues like U.S. rice and beef, which have been subject to import restrictions in South Korea.

As part of that deal, South Korea also pledged to invest $350 billion into key U.S. industries. But behind the scenes, officials from both countries reportedly continue to disagree how this fund will be structured or used, with U.S. officials seeking far more discretionary power than the South Korean side is willing to give.

U.S. Army soldiers attend a transfer of authority ceremony in South Korea. In the past, President Trump has said that South Korea should pay $10 billion a year to help keep the 28,500 U.S. troops stationed in the country.

(SOPA Images / SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)

The summit hasn’t fully quelled South Korean concerns over defense and military cooperation either.

In the past, Trump has said that South Korea should pay $10 billion a year to help keep the 28,500 U.S. troops stationed in the country. That is around nine times what Seoul currently pays under an existing agreement between the two countries.

While South Korean officials said that the defense cost-sharing issue was not discussed during Monday’s summit, Park says that the issue may resurface down the line.

“The alliance cost-sharing issue has been a consistent interest of Trump’s over the years,” he said.

Trump’s grievances over the cost of stationing the U.S. military in South Korea has fueled concerns that the U.S. will pull out troops from its bases here to counter China, making the country more vulnerable to North Korea’s military threats.

The scenario has gained plausibility in recent months, following reports earlier this year that U.S. defense officials were reviewing a plan to relocate thousands of U.S. military personnel stationed in South Korea to other locations in the Indo-Pacific, such as Guam.

While any reduction of troop size has long been a political anathema in South Korea, Lee Ho-ryung, a senior research fellow at the Seoul-based Korea Institute for Defense Analyses (KIDA), says that this may be less of a sticking point for President Lee than history might suggest, citing a speech the South Korean leader delivered shortly after the summit in which he pledged to increase Seoul’s own defense spending.

“The content of that speech and Q&A suggest that the two sides have somewhat aligned on these issues,” she said. “But it will still need to be further discussed at the working level.”

When asked by a reporter on Monday whether he was considering reducing the number of U.S. troops in South Korea, Trump deflected by saying “I don’t want to say that now because we’ve been friends.”

But then he pivoted to another suggestion that raised eyebrows in South Korea.

“Maybe one of the things I’d like to do is ask them to give us ownership of the land where we have the big fort,” he said. “I would like to see if we could get rid of the lease.”

Under an existing arrangement known as the Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA), South Korea currently grants the U.S. military rent-free use of the land where its bases are located. Speaking to legislators on Tuesday, South Korean Defense Minister Ahn Gyu-back summarily dismissed the suggestion, hinting that it may have been a negotiating tactic.

“It is impossible in the real world,” he said. “But from the perspective of President Trump, I think it may have been a comment intended to allow him to make a different strategic demand.”

In the meantime, a second round of negotiations with North Korea’s Kim Jong Un would be a win for both leaders.

But many experts believe that the window for getting North Korea to denuclearize under the previously discussed terms — partial sanctions relief — has closed since the failed summits between Trump and Kim in 2018 and 2019. North Korea recently dismissed any attempts to convince it to give up its nuclear weapons as a “mockery of the other party.”

Personal chemistry between President Lee and Trump can go only so far this time, says Lee of the Korea Institute for Defense Analyses.

“North Korea is effectively evading any economic sanctions through Russia and China,” she said. “Sanctions relief is no longer the enticing carrot that it once was.”

In White House meeting with Lee, Trump also says US should have ownership of land housing US military base in South Korea.

United States President Donald Trump and South Korean President Lee Jae-myung have expressed their willingness to engage with North Korea’s hereditary leader, Kim Jong Un, during a meeting at the White House.

Lee, who has promised to “heal the wounds of division and war” as South Korea’s new president, told the US leader on Monday that his North Korean counterpart “will be waiting” to meet him.

“I hope you can bring peace to the Korean Peninsula, the only divided nation in the world, so that you can meet with Kim Jong Un”, and “build a Trump Tower in North Korea so that I can play golf there”, Lee said, speaking in Korean.

Trump, who has met with Kim on three past occasions, told reporters in the Oval Office that he hopes to meet the North Korean leader again this year.

“Someday, I’ll see him. I look forward to seeing him. He was very good with me,” Trump said, adding that he knew Kim “better than anybody, almost, other than his sister”.

During his meeting with the South Korean president, Trump also said the US should have ownership of South Korean land where some 28,500 American troops are stationed in US military bases.

“We spent a lot of money building a fort, and there was a contribution made by South Korea, but I would like to see if we could get rid of the lease and get ownership of the land where we have a massive military base,” Trump said.

This was Lee’s first visit to the White House after he was elected in June following the impeachment of former President Yoon Suk-yeol, who briefly imposed martial law late last year in a move swiftly overturned by lawmakers and which has led to his arrest on alleged insurrection charges.

Since taking office, Lee has publicly made efforts to improve South Korea’s relationship with its northern neighbour. But Pyongyang has so far rebuffed the diplomatic overtures.

Last week, Lee said he would seek to restore the so-called September 19 Military Agreement, signed at an inter-Korean summit in 2018, suspending military activity along South Korea’s border with North Korea as part of an effort to rebuild trust.

Lee’s announcement was met with criticism from North Korea, which noted that it came as South Korea embarked on joint military drills with the United States.

North Korean state media said that the drills proved Washington’s intention to “occupy” the entire Korean Peninsula .

“If they continuously persist in the military rehearsal, they will certainly face up the unpleasant situation and pay a dear price,” Kim Yong Bok, first vice-chief of the General Staff of the Korean People’s Army, was cited by North Korean state media KCNA as saying.

‘A raid on churches’

Hours before Lee arrived at the White House, Trump took to social media to denounce what he described as “a Purge or Revolution” in South Korea. “WHAT IS GOING ON IN SOUTH KOREA? Seems like a Purge or Revolution. We can’t have that and do business there,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.

Asked about his post during his meeting with Lee, Trump said, “I am sure it’s a misunderstanding, but there’s a rumour going around about raiding churches … I did hear that from intel.”

Last month, South Korean Special Prosecutor Min Joong-ki’s team raided Unification Church facilities and officials linked with the religious sect, while “investigating various allegations involving former first lady Kim Keon Hee”, South Korea’s official Yonhap News Agency said.

Seoul police also raided Sarang Jeil Church, headed by evangelical preacher Jun Kwang-hoon, who led protests in support of the removed President Yoon.

The police have also investigated pro-Yoon activists who stormed a court in late January after it extended Yoon’s detention, and in July, special prosecutors investigating the declaration of martial law served a search warrant on the Korean part of a military base jointly operated with the US.

WASHINGTON — President Trump greeted Lee Jae Myung, the new president of South Korea, by asserting that a “Purge or Revolution” was taking place there and threatening to not do business with Seoul as he prepared to host the new leader at the White House later Monday.

Trump elaborated later Monday that he was referring to raids on churches and on a U.S. military base by the new South Korean government, which they “probably shouldn’t have done,” the president argued.

“I heard bad things,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office on Monday morning. “I don’t know if it’s true or not. I’ll be finding out.”

The warning shot previewed a potentially hostile confrontation later Monday as Lee, the liberal leader and longtime critic of Seoul’s conservative establishment, sits down with Trump to discuss Seoul and Washington’s recent trade agreement and continued defense cooperation. Lee leads a nation that has been in a state of political turmoil for the last several months after its former leader, the conservative Yoon Suk Yeol, briefly imposed martial law last December which eventually led to his stunning ouster from office.

Trump did not identify specific raids. But earlier this month, South Korean police conducted a raid on a church led by a conservative activist pastor whom authorities allege is connected to a pro-Yoon protest in January that turned violent, according to Yonhap news agency. A special prosecutor’s team that is investigating corruption allegations against Yoon’s wife, former first lady Kim Keon Hee, also raided the facilities of the Unification Church after allegations that one of its officials gave Kim luxury goods.

Meanwhile, Osan Air Base, which is jointly operated by the United States and South Korea, was also the target of a raid last month by investigators looking into how Yoon’s activation of martial law transpired, according to the Chosun Ilbo newspaper. South Korean officials have insisted the raid was in the areas controlled by Seoul.

“WHAT IS GOING ON IN SOUTH KOREA? Seems like a Purge or Revolution. We can’t have that and do business there,” Trump posted on social media Monday morning. “I am seeing the new President today at the White House. Thank you for your attention to this matter!!!”

Yoon, who was elected to a five-year term in 2022, was considered more ideologically aligned with Trump and had even taken up golfing again after the U.S. president was reelected last November to try to forge a bond with him.

The liberal Lee, an outspoken critic of Seoul’s conservative establishment who had narrowly lost to Yoon in that 2022 election, led the South Korean parliament’s efforts to overturn Yoon’s martial law decree while impeaching him. The nation’s Constitutional Court formally dismissed Yoon in April.

Before Trump’s Truth Social post Monday morning, the first in-person meeting between Trump and Lee had been expected to help flesh out details of a July trade deal between the two countries that has Seoul investing hundreds of billions of dollars in the U.S. The agreement set tariffs on South Korean goods at 15% after Trump threatened rates as high as 25%.

Trump declared at the time that South Korea would be “completely OPEN TO TRADE” with the U.S. and accept goods such as cars and agricultural products. Automobiles are South Korea’s top export to the U.S.

Seoul has one of the largest trade surpluses among Washington’s NATO and Indo-Pacific allies, and countries where the U.S. holds a trade deficit has drawn particular ire from Trump, who wants to eliminate such trade imbalances.

Lee’s office said in announcing the visit that the two leaders plan to discuss cooperating on key manufacturing sectors such as semiconductors, batteries and shipbuilding. The latter has been a particular area of focus for the U.S. president.

On defense, one potential topic is the continued presence of U.S. troops in South Korea and concerns in Seoul that the U.S. will seek higher payments in return.

Ahead of his visit to Washington, Lee traveled to Tokyo for his first bilateral visit as president in a hugely symbolic trip for the two nations that hold longstanding historical wounds. The summit with Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba was interpreted by analysts as a way to show unity and potential leverage as Japan and South Korea face new challenges from the Trump administration.

Lee was the first South Korean president to choose Japan for the inaugural bilateral visit since the two nations normalized ties in 1965.

Elected in June, Lee was a former child laborer with an arm deformity who rose his way through South Korea’s political ranks to lead the liberal Democratic Party and win the presidency after multiple attempts.

Lee faced an assassination attempt in January 2024, when he was stabbed in the neck by a man saying he wanted Lee’s autograph and later told investigators that he intended to kill the politician.

Lee arrived in the U.S. on Sunday and will leave Tuesday. He headlined a dinner Sunday evening with roughly 200 local Korean-Americans in downtown Washington on Sunday night.

Kim writes for the Associated Press.

Aug. 25 (UPI) — U.S. President Donald Trump and South Korean President Lee Jae Myung, meeting for the first time Monday, described their admiration for each other and pledged cooperation in trade and defense.

Trump shook the South Korean leader’s hand as he arrived at the White House. Lee took office in June after a snap election and Trump was back in office in January.

Yoon Suk Yeol was removed as president in April, arrested and jailed after being impeached in 2024 for a failed attempt to declare martial law.

Trump said there is a better relationship with Lee than with the former leader during a session with reporters before meeting privately.

“You’ve had a lot of leaders, I’ve gone through a lot of leaders in South Korea,” Trump said. “You know, it’s been quick. You’ll be there for a long time.

“The various leaders that I’ve dealt with, they were not approaching it properly, in my opinion, having to do with North Korea, but I think your approach is a much better one.”

Lee noted it was different when Joe Biden was U.S. President from 2021-2025.

“But during the short hiatus where you were out of office, North Korea developed further its nuclear and missile capabilities, and that led to a deterioration of the situation,” Lee said.

Trump, speaking wither reporters, said the two nations have common interests.

“We’re going to get [along] together great because we really sort of need each other,” Trump said. “We love what they do. We love their products. We love their ships. And they love what we have.

“We were dealing with them on Alaska,” Trump said about investing in a liquefied natural gas project. “You need oil and we have it.”

He said oil is probably what South Korea needs the most.

In April, when Trump imposed tariffs on foreign-made goods, South Korea was hit with a 25% reciprocal tariff. It was paused for 90 days and subsequently lowered to 15% after renegotiations in July. Most U.S. trading partners have been imposed with at least a 10% baseline fee.

The United States had a $66 billion goods trade deficit with the Asian country in 2024, a 28.5% increase over 2023.

On July 30, Trump said on Truth Social that “South Korea will give to the United States $350 Billion Dollars for Investments owned and controlled by the United States, and selected by myself, as President.”

South Korea also announced a $150 billion proposal, dubbed “Make America Shipbuilding Great Again,” in an effort to revive U.S. shipbuilding.

Lee, noting the Dow Jones Industrial Index is at a record high, said: “I hope Korea can be a part of that renaissance.”

He even praised the Oval Office decor, saying it is “bright and beautiful and it has the dignity of America.” Trump has added several gold touches to the office.

Trump had a different tone about South Korea earlier in the day, posting on Truth Social: “WHAT IS GOING ON IN SOUTH KOREA? Seems like a Purge or Revolution. We can’t have that and do business there. I am seeing the new President today at the White House.”

Trump said in the meeting with Lee that he was referring to raids on churches and on a U.S. military base by the South Korean government. Describing it as “intel,” he said they “probably shouldn’t have done.”

“We didn’t directly investigate the U.S base, we investigated the South Korea unit within the base. I will explain it to you more in detail later,” he told Trump.

Lee said a special counsel team is “conducting a fact-finding” investigation into the matter.

Trump said he is sure they will “work it out.”

Lee arrived in the U.S. capital after he met with Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba in Tokyo, and said he learned more about negotiations between the United States and Japan, as well as getting tips on Trump’s negotiation style.

Currently, the U.S. has 28,000 troops stationed in the nation.

Trump said he would like for South Korea to give the U.S. ownership of land where the United States has built “a massive military base”.

Lee has been worried about threats from North Korea.

During their Oval Office meeting, Lee said he hoped Trump can work on establishing peace in the Korean Peninsula.

“I think you are the first president to have so much interest in the world’s peace issues and actually made achievements,” Lee said. “So, I hope you would make peace on the Korean Peninsula, which remains the only separated country in the world, and meet with [North Korea’s leader] Kim Jong Un.”

Lee jokingly said that a Trump tower should be built in North Korea, “so I can go play golf in Pyongyang, as well.”

Trump spoke about how he met with Kim at the border, the Demilitarized Zone, on June 30, 2018.

“Love going to DMZ,” Trump said about Kim, praising the dictator.

Seoul, South Korea – South Korean President Lee Jae-myung is set to meet United States President Donald Trump for the first time in a high-stakes visit to his country’s closest and most important ally.

After a one-day meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba in Tokyo, Lee arrived in Washington, DC, on Sunday ahead of an official working-level meeting at the White House with Trump.

It will be the first time the two heads of state meet.

Their summit follows a trade deal in July in which Washington agreed to cut its reciprocal tariff on South Korea to 15 percent from an initially proposed 25 percent.

The meeting is crucial for South Korea, whose engagement with the Trump administration was disrupted by domestic political turmoil, ignited by the brief declaration of martial law announced in December by the country’s impeached former president, Yoon Suk-yeol.

Discussion will focus on ironing out details of the unwritten July trade deal, which involves South Korea agreeing to buy $100bn in US energy and invest $350bn in the US economy.

On top of those dizzying sums are direct investments in the US, which are expected from South Korean companies, and which Trump has mentioned will be decided during their talks.

Accompanied by first lady Kim Hea-kyung, Lee will lead a delegation formed by the heads of South Korean top conglomerates, including Samsung Electronics, SK Group, Hyundai Motor and LG Group.

The four companies alone are already known to contribute approximately 126 trillion won ($91.2bn) in direct investments to the US, according to the South Korean daily Maeil Business Newspaper.

Choi Yoon-jung, a principal research fellow at the Sejong Institute in Seoul, said Lee needs to be deliberate and direct with Trump in the talks, as “South Korea is in a tough predicament in terms of trade with the US compared to the past”.

“It will be important for President Lee to explain how investments will be designed to serve US national interests and to remind Trump that the two nations are close trading partners who went through large ordeals to realise their Free Trade Agreement over two decades ago,” Choi told Al Jazeera.

Mason Richey, a professor of international politics at the Hankuk University of Foreign Studies (HUFS), said the direction of the talks on investments is likely to be “unpredictable”.

“Not only are the current 15 percent tariffs overwhelmingly likely to stay on, but the investment part of the deal is likely to remain unclear and subject to unpredictable adjustment by the White House,” Richey told Al Jazeera.

Analysts say shipbuilding is one area where Trump clearly desires to have South Korea as a key partner to play catch-up to China’s naval fleet, which leads in terms of sheer numbers and is also making technological advancements.

Officials in Seoul have previously stated that a key component of the tariff deal with Washington would include a partnership worth about $150bn to assist in rebuilding the US shipbuilding industry.

To that end, after visiting the White House, Lee will head to Philadelphia to visit the Philly Shipyard, which was bought by the South Korean company Hanwha Group last year.

Analysts also say that battery production and semiconductors are some other sectors where Trump has set clear objectives to increase US capacity, and where South Korea has shown willingness and interest in being that partner.

“The South Korean government is also willing to actively participate in the ‘modernisation’ of its alliance with the US, that could include increasing contributions to upholding the region’s security and development,” said the Sejong Institute’s Choi.

Another major discussion point will be Seoul and Washington’s defence posture regarding the growing threats from North Korea, as well as the development of a strategic alliance to address the changing international security and economic environment.

“The pressures for the role of US forces on the Korean Peninsula to evolve has been growing for years,” Jenny Town, the director of the Washington, DC-based research programme 38 North, told Al Jazeera.

This evolution was especially so with great power competition increasing from China, Town said.

“The Trump administration is focused on how to maximise resources for US interests and priorities, so it is likely that some changes will be made during this term,” Town said.

“How drastic or dramatic those changes will depend on a number of factors, including the state of the US domestic political infrastructure that provides checks and balances to executive decisions,” she said.

A US Senate defence policy bill for fiscal year 2026 includes a ban on the use of funds to reduce the number of US Forces Korea (USFK) troops to below the current level of 28,500 service members.

“This makes it unlikely that there will be an immediate change in troop deployment numbers in South Korea,” Choi said.

“So, the big point of contention will be the job assignment of the troops to match US interests. I think there’s a possibility of Trump asking South Korea to take on a bigger role in regional security, such as taking part in the conflict involving Taiwan.”

Financial negotiations between Trump and Lee may also tip into security details, as the US president has regularly called for South Korea to pay more for the US troops stationed on its soil.

Trump has made that same call since his first presidential term.

In addition to providing more than $1bn for the presence of USFK forces, South Korea also paid the entire cost of building Camp Humphreys, the largest US base overseas, situated 64km (39 miles) south of Seoul.

Trump has said that he wants defence spending to reach closer to 5 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) for all US allies.

Today, South Korea’s defence budget is at 3.5 percent of GDP.

Transfer of wartime operational command – referring to the transfer of control of South Korean forces during wartime from the US to South Korea – has long been a point of discussion between Seoul and Washington.

Under the Lee administration’s five-year governance plan, Seoul hopes to have the transition happen by 2030.

The Trump-Lee meeting also comes after North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s powerful sister recently dismissed Washington and Seoul’s stated desires to restart diplomacy aimed at defusing Pyongyang’s nuclear programme.

Kim Yo Jong said that Seoul could never be a “diplomatic partner” with Pyongyang.

For Town, there were “interesting nuances” in Kim Yo Jong’s statements.

“While rejecting any kind of denuclearisation narrative as the basis of negotiations, her statements did create an opening for the US to engage North Korea to improve overall relations,” Town said.

“Kim suggested that there’s a reason for two countries with nuclear weapons to avoid confrontational relations. This begs the question of whether the US is actually interested in building a different relationship with North Korea that is not hinged on denuclearisation, and how US allies would see such an agenda,” Town said.

For Richey, the HUFS professor, the possibility of “Trump bypassing Lee in diplomacy with North Korea” poses a serious risk for South Korea down the road, in terms of influence and security.

In contrast to today’s lack of contact between Washington and Pyongyang, Trump’s first presidential term featured a suspension of US military exercises with South Korea and three separate meetings between the US president and North Korea’s Kim.

His desire to earn a Nobel Peace Prize could also offer another set of motivations for Trump to extend a US hand of friendship to Kim.

The South Korean president’s White House visit also coincides with annual, large-scale South Korean and US joint military exercises, which run for 11 days.

During a visit to North Korea’s most advanced warship last week, Kim denounced the drills as rehearsals for an invasion of North Korea and “an obvious expression of their will to provoke war”.

Also, last week, Beyond Parallel, a project of the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies, unveiled an undocumented North Korean missile base about 25km (15.5 miles) from the border with China, which likely has intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) capable of reaching the US.

Town added that Russia could also play a cameo role in this summit.

“Lee may bring up the issue of how Russia’s relations with North Korea, especially their military cooperation, poses potential dangers to the alliance’s security interests,” she said.

“Talks could wind up to consideration of whether Trump’s relationship with [Russian President Vladimir] Putin may help mitigate the situation,” she said.

North Korea’s recent dealings with Russia adds another dimension to these inter-country relationships, as reciprocal exchanges of military troops for the receipt of food, energy, cash, weapons and technology have created a stable strategic bond between Moscow and Pyongyang.

Furthermore, North Korea has shown an interest in strengthening ties with another of the US’s biggest rivals – China.

“Ultimately, I believe Trump will continue to make overtures toward North Korea,” Choi said.

“He may seem to be pushing an isolationist strategy, but the matter of fact is that the US continues to be in the middle of negotiations and talks whenever a big conflict arises in the world,” she said.