President Lee hosts business leaders ahead of summit with U.S. President Trump

Earlier on Tuesday President Lee Jae Myung hosted business leaders at his office as part of summit preparations ahead of his U.S. visit.

Our correspondent Yoon Jung-min reports.

With the summit with U.S. President Donald Trump less than a week away, President Lee Jae Myung hosted business leaders at his office on Tuesday, including Chey Tae-won of SK Group and Lee Jae-yong of Samsung, who will be accompanying him on his trip to Washington.

"The meeting was arranged to discuss ways to maximize economic outcomes at the South Korea-U.S. summit, and listen to our companies' investment and purchase plans in the U.S."

As the President thanked them for their role in recent trade talks with the U.S., he called for the need to work together to turn the crisis into an opportunity amid trade uncertainties to revitalize the economy.

The sentiment was echoed by the business leaders.

"The business leaders agreed that the upcoming trip should serve as an opportunity to help promote our businesses entering the U.S. market and further raise our industrial competitiveness."

Late last month, a framework trade deal was reached to lower the U.S. reciprocal tariffs on South Korea from 25-percent to 15, in exchange for investment pledges worth hundreds of billions of dollars, with many details to be worked out in time for the first Lee-Trump summit.

Areas of cooperation would be centered on chips, batteries and shipbuilding.

Security is also one of the major issues, such as South Korea's defense spending and a possible change to the role and scale of U.S. troops stationed in Korea as Washington focuses on countering China.

President Lee's trip to neighboring Japan will precede his U.S. trip for talks with Japan's Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, signaling resumption of the two neighbors' so-called "shuttle diplomacy."

Against this backdrop, former Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha is likely to be appointed as South Korea's ambassador to the U.S., according to sources familiar with the matter, and former ambassador to Vietnam, Lee Hyuk, as top envoy to Japan.

Yoon Jung-min, Arirang News.