Welcome back to World Brief, where we’re looking at East Asia’s tactic to woo U.S. President Donald Trump, Hurricane Melissa wreaking havoc on the Caribbean, and Israel violating its cease-fire deal with Hamas.
Trump Gets His Golden Crown
South Korea rolled out the red carpet on Wednesday to welcome U.S. President Donald Trump to the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit, held in the Korean city of Gyeongju. Many of the summit’s attendees have been working to clinch improved economic deals with Washington amid Trump’s trade war. To do so, they are using a tried-and-true tactic to woo the U.S. president: gifts and flattery.
Trump has long likened himself to a king, from waving a ceremonial sword at his inaugural ball in January to posting “LONG LIVE THE KING” on his Truth Social account. Even the White House X account has featured a fake Time magazine-style cover showing Trump wearing a gilded crown. (Trump maintains that he seeks no royal office, telling Fox News this month, “I’m not a king,” and conceding on Wednesday that he is not eligible for a third term, despite musing over the possibility for months.)
South Korean President Lee Jae-myung appears to have taken note of what delights Trump. During their meeting on Wednesday, Lee gifted the U.S. president a replica of an ancient gold crown from the Silla dynasty and awarded him the Grand Order of Mugunghwa, South Korea’s highest honor; Trump is the first U.S. president to ever receive the medal. Lee also served Trump an eccentric menu of Korean-style American foods, including a seafood salad with Thousand Island dressing and an ending course titled “Peacemaker’s Dessert.”
Seoul’s strategy is one that Trump has received throughout his six-day Asia tour. Notably, when the U.S. president visited Japan on Monday and Tuesday, he met with Japanese Emperor Naruhito before his summit with newly elected Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi as part of the premier’s efforts to signal how her country’s alliance with Washington is Tokyo’s “top priority.”
Those efforts seem to be paying off. Trump signed a new rare-earths deal on Tuesday as well as a previously negotiated deal that reduces U.S. tariffs on Japanese goods from a threatened level of 25 percent to 15 percent in exchange for Japan investing $550 billion in the United States. And on Wednesday, Trump finalized a trade deal with South Korea that maintains the overall U.S. tariff on the country’s goods at 15 percent but lowers duties on South Korean automobiles from 25 percent to 15 percent.
In addition, the United States will grant most-favored nation status to South Korea’s pharmaceutical and lumber products, while airplane parts, generic pharmaceuticals, and natural resources not produced in the United States will be exempt from tariffs. On semiconductors, U.S. tariffs will be set no less favorable than those applied to Taiwan, South Korea’s major competitor in the sector, according to Kim Yong-beom, South Korean presidential chief of staff for policy.
In exchange, Seoul will invest $350 billion in the U.S. economy—$200 billion in cash installments and $150 billion allocated for shipbuilding industry cooperation, with an annual cap set at $20 billion, Kim said.
Trump’s last big meeting on his Asia tour will be with Chinese President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the APEC summit on Thursday morning local time.
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What We’re Following
Hurricane devastation. Hurricane Melissa roared into Cuba on Wednesday, bringing sustained winds of 120 miles per hour—down from the 185 mile-per-hour gusts that decimated parts of Jamaica on Tuesday. What started as a Category 5 storm, the strongest hurricane to hit Jamaica in recorded history, has since been downgraded to a still-intense Category 2 as Melissa travels from Cuba to the Bahamas, Bermuda, and Turks and Caicos. It is unclear how many people have been killed so far, though initial estimates have recorded more than two dozen deaths.
Initial reports show that Melissa has knocked out power to 70 percent of Jamaica, with some areas experiencing such severe outages that the government remains unable to tell how disastrous the damage is. “The reports that we have had so far would include damage to hospitals, significant damage to residential property, housing, and commercial property as well, and damage to our road infrastructure,” Jamaican Prime Minister Andrew Holness said.
The U.S. State Department announced on Wednesday that it will deploy a response team to the Caribbean to help the affected countries. In the past, the U.S. Agency for International Development has led disaster response efforts in the region; however, Trump’s decision to gut the agency in July leaves many wondering how Washington will assist its closest neighbors—and if China will swoop in to fill the United States’ shoes.
Testing the truce deal. The Israeli military pledged on Wednesday to abide by the Israel-Hamas cease-fire, hours after Israeli forces launched the country’s deadliest strikes on Gaza since the deal took effect on Oct. 10. In a separate statement, the Israeli military also said it had targeted dozens of Hamas members as well as weapons depots and tunnels belonging to the group.
On Tuesday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused Hamas of violating the cease-fire deal by handing over body parts that Israel said were partial remains of a hostage recovered earlier in the war and by killing an Israeli soldier in the southern Gaza city of Rafah. Israel retaliated with a series of overnight airstrikes that killed at least 104 people across the territory.
Hamas denied attacking Israeli soldiers and denounced Israel’s actions as a “criminal bombardment.” And foreign leaders expressed dismay over the outbreak of fighting, with Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani calling the violence on both sides “very disappointing and frustrating for us.”
But Trump, who helped broker the cease-fire deal, appeared more lenient. “As I understand it, they [Hamas] took out an Israeli soldier,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One. “So, the Israelis hit back, and they should hit back. When that happens, they should hit back.”
Referendum on the far right. The Netherlands held an early parliamentary election on Wednesday that experts suggest will test the popularity of the country’s far-right Party for Freedom (PVV), led by populist Geert Wilders. Recent polling has shown the Netherlands’ mainstream parties gaining traction in recent weeks after they refused to form a coalition with Wilders’s party. This means that the PVV would have to win by a large enough margin to avoid needing a ruling coalition in order to maintain power.
Under Wilders’s tenure, the PVV has pushed an anti-immigration, anti-Islam platform that seeks to halt funding for health care benefits and clean energy. During the Netherlands’ 2023 election, Wilders stunned analysts when his party secured a first-place finish, but in June, he toppled the country’s government over his coalition partners’ refusal to adopt his anti-refugee measures.
Now, Wilders’s party is expected to lose seats in the country’s lower house of parliament, as some former PVV members are defecting to the ultraconservative JA21 party. And with a left-wing Green Party-Labor Party alliance gaining popularity, pollsters forecast that it is unlikely that the PVV will sweep the vote, even as Europe at large shifts to the right.
Odds and Ends
Pedestrians in Slovakia will need to watch their step starting next year. On Tuesday, Slovakian lawmakers passed an amendment that will require people to move no faster than 6 kilometers (or roughly 3 miles) per hour on sidewalks in urban areas. The law, which also applies to skaters and cyclists, aims to improve traffic safety—particularly in an effort to reduce scooter collisions. The speed limit will take effect on Jan. 1, 2026.
The post South Korea Courts Trump During Visit appeared first on Foreign Policy.
