Analysis by WorldTribune Staff, August 25, 2025 Real World News

President Donald Trump had remained studiously silent on the turbulent South Korean political landscape until rocking Seoul with an early morning blast on Truth Social.

Trump wrote: “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. Thank you for your attention to this matter!!!”

Less than three hours later, on Monday Aug. 25, Trump warmly hosted leftist South Korean President Lee Jae-Myung — who has imprisoned his conservative predecessor Yoon Suk-Yeol and arrested the former first lady — as if nothing was amiss despite having seriously rattled Lee’s staff and the left-leaning legacy media in South Korea with his post.

Perhaps in an effort to save face with his countrymen after the international bombshell, Lee set erect on the edge of his chair appearing for the cameras to be taller than his host.

The meeting and subsequent reports to the media were upbeat with Trump promising to renew his “great” relationship with North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong-Un.

He congratulated Lee for his electoral victory which, like Joe Biden’s in 2020, has been clouded by reports of irregularities that have yet to be investigated and have led to massive, if unreported street protests in major cities.

Lee talked up the “renaissance taking place not only in shipbuilding but in manufacturing” in the United States — areas in which Korea has promised to invest several hundred billion dollars while Washington holds tariffs down to 15 percent.

“While the two presidents focused on renewing dialogue with North Korea, they failed to mention two obstacles in the way of North-South relations,” WorldTribune.com contributing editor Don Kirk wrote for the New York Sun.

“First, Mr. Kim has repeatedly refused anything to do with South Korea, calling it the ‘enemy.’ Second, neither Mr. Trump nor Mr. Lee said a word about the North providing troops and arms to Russia for its war in Ukraine.”

Shortly after Trump’s early morning post, South Korean presidential spokesperson Kang Yu-Jung assured reporters that the office would check the situation.

During a press availability later, Trump said he heard about recent “vicious” raids on churches by the new South Korean government, when asked to elaborate on his social media post.

“Well, I heard that there were raids on churches over the last few days, very vicious raids on churches by the new government in South Korea, that they even went into a military base and got information,” he said. “They probably shouldn’t have done that, but I heard bad things.”

Trump added: “I will be finding out. As you know, your new president’s coming in just a couple of hours. I look forward to meeting him, but we won’t stand for that.”

In early August, South Korean police conducted a search and seizure operation at Sarang Jeil Church as part of a criminal investigation into pastor Jeon Kwang-hoon, who is suspected of inciting an assault on a court that issued an arrest warrant for then-President Yoon Suk Yeol whom Lee’s government has arrested. Prosecutors are also investigating corruption charges against Unification Church officials alleged to have sought favors from the conservative Yoon government.

In July, another special counsel team looking into Yoon’s alleged insurrection raided a radar facility at Osan Air Base, reportedly to look into suspicions that the Yoon administration covertly sent drones to Pyongyang and fabricated records to conceal it, the Korea Herald reported.

What the two presidents discussed in confidence was not reported, but both appeared to smooth over their differences.

Trump had made his point, and Lee left confident that he had succeeded in reassuring South Koreans that despite his pro-China and pro-North Korea resume he had preserved the all-important core relationship with the United States.

However on the same day Lee was was at the White House, he had dispatched a delegation to Beijing to deliver his personal letter to Xi Jinping with an invitation for Xi to visit South Korea during the upcoming APEC summit, Seoul’s Foreign Ministry said.

WorldTribune.com reported in an analysis by Gordon G. Chang on July 21 that Lee’s government conducted a raid on the Osan Air Base, which is jointly operated by U.S. Forces Korea and the Republic of Korea Air Force.

Related: Gordon Chang: South Korea’s anti-American leader is coming to Washington, August 17, 2025

Special Prosecutor Cho Eun-Seok entered the Master Control and Reporting Center, operated by both militaries. “This was in violation of the Status of Forces Agreement because there was no prior notification of the American military. Cho seized confidential radar data and information on the U.S. Air Force’s U-2 surveillance planes,” Chang noted.

Tara O, a former U.S. Air Force lieutenant colonel who served at Osan, told Chang that “Cho and his large team absolutely should not have had access to such classified information.”

Following the Lee-ordered raid on Osan, two high-level exchanges between Washington and Seoul were called off.

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  U.S. president’s early morning post delivered political shockwaves in Seoul