{"slug": "can-lee-jae-myungs-g7-balancing-act-bridge-north-korea-divide", "title": "Can Lee Jae Myung’s G7 balancing act bridge North Korea divide?", "summary": "South Korean President Lee Jae Myung used the G7 summit to urge Washington toward diplomacy with North Korea, drawing a signal from US President Donald Trump that talks should remain the preferred approach. Analysts say Pyongyang has little incentive for dialogue despite Lee's outreach.", "body_md": "Advertisement\n\n# Can Lee Jae Myung’s G7 balancing act bridge North Korea divide?\n\nAnalysts say Lee’s outreach could help preserve prospects for future diplomacy, but Pyongyang has ‘little incentive’ to pursue dialogue\n\n4-MIN READ4-MIN\n\nListen\n\n[Lee Jae Myung](https://www.scmp.com/topics/lee-jae-myung?module=inline&pgtype=article)used his first major diplomatic outing to Europe to press Washington back towards diplomacy with North Korea, testing how far the\n\n[South Korean](https://www.scmp.com/topics/south-korea?module=inline&pgtype=article)president could reopen space for talks despite Pyongyang’s deepening alignment with Moscow and Beijing.\n\nAt this week’s Group of Seven summit, Lee’s outreach drew what observers described as a signal from US President\n\n[Donald Trump](https://www.scmp.com/topics/donald-trump?module=inline&pgtype=article)that talks – rather than force – should remain the preferred approach for dealing with Pyongyang’s nuclear threat.But analysts said the push faced a hard reality: while Trump might be minded to refocus on\n\n[North Korea](https://www.scmp.com/topics/north-korea?module=inline&pgtype=article)following the precarious conclusion of the conflict with Iran, Pyongyang had shown little appetite for talks.Advertisement\n\nLee said on social media he had held “in-depth” discussions with Trump about peace on the Korean peninsula and bilateral relations during a 90-minute G7 dinner on Wednesday. “A lot of progress was made,” he wrote, without elaborating.\n\nTrump reportedly presented Lee with a signature pen as a gift and suggested they play golf together with their spouses.\n\nAdvertisement\n\n“The relationship between the Republic of Korea and the United States is solid and eternal,” Lee said.\n\nAdvertisement\n\nSelect Voice\n\nSelect Speed\n\n1.00x", "url": "https://wpnews.pro/news/can-lee-jae-myungs-g7-balancing-act-bridge-north-korea-divide", "canonical_source": "https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/3357580/can-lee-jae-myungs-g7-balancing-act-bridge-north-korea-divide?utm_source=rss_feed", "published_at": "2026-06-19 00:00:08+00:00", "updated_at": "2026-06-19 00:08:49.542883+00:00", "lang": "en", "topics": ["ai-policy"], "entities": ["Lee Jae Myung", "Donald Trump", "North Korea", "South Korea", "G7"], "alternates": {"html": "https://wpnews.pro/news/can-lee-jae-myungs-g7-balancing-act-bridge-north-korea-divide", "markdown": "https://wpnews.pro/news/can-lee-jae-myungs-g7-balancing-act-bridge-north-korea-divide.md", "text": "https://wpnews.pro/news/can-lee-jae-myungs-g7-balancing-act-bridge-north-korea-divide.txt", "jsonld": "https://wpnews.pro/news/can-lee-jae-myungs-g7-balancing-act-bridge-north-korea-divide.jsonld"}}