The progress made at last month’s Oval Office meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and his South Korean counterpart, Lee Jae Myung, was palpable, with Lee leaving Washington with security assurances and one of the best tariff deals of any U.S. trading partner.
Since then, however, the arrests of hundreds of South Korean citizens in a U.S. immigration raid on a Hyundai car battery factory in Georgia have shaken that progress and shown just how unpredictable relations with Trump 2.0 can be.
Indeed, debate in Seoul over the future of the U.S.-South Korea alliance has intensified since Trump returned to the White House. Yet after the political upheaval sparked by then-President Yoon Suk Yeol’s declaration of a “state of emergency” on Dec. 3 — leading to his impeachment, a snap election and a new administration — the domestic situation is stabilizing.
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