[Anchor]
President Lee Jae-myung has departed for New York to attend the United Nations General Assembly. With negotiations on investment in the United States stuck in a last-minute stalemate, keen attention is focused on whether a bilateral summit with President Donald Trump will take place.
Reporter Kang Cheongwan reports.
[Reporter]
President Lee Jae-myung and the First Lady board Air Force One, seen off by Democratic Party Chairman Kim Min-seok, Presidential Chief of Staff Kang Hoon-sik, and other officials.
President Lee will attend the UN General Assembly in New York and then pay a state visit to Mexico for a South Korea-Mexico summit during a seven-day, five-night trip through September 27.
Early tomorrow morning, September 23, Korea Standard Time, he is scheduled to deliver a keynote address at the UN General Assembly on the direction of UN reform and peace on the Korean Peninsula.
President Lee then plans to hold talks with UN Secretary-General António Guterres and bilateral meetings with various world leaders. Particular attention is focused on whether he will meet separately with U.S. President Donald Trump to discuss the issue of investment in the U.S., which is undergoing eleventh-hour friction.
[Wi Sung-lac / National Security Adviser: There will be separate contacts in various formats with leaders of key nations, including the United States and Australia. We plan to discuss ways to cooperate in order to expand our national interests.]
A senior presidential official told SBS that negotiations on investment in the U.S. are in a last-minute deadlock because the South Korean government is demanding that "commercial reasonableness" be upheld, while the U.S. administration maintains that investment must come first. President Lee also hinted at disagreements over certain issues in the final stages during a press conference on September 18.
[President Lee Jae-myung (Press conference on September 18): "They said an agreement was almost reached, but looking at the contents, there were parts that were difficult for me to agree to, so we are discussing them again."]
With some within the government expressing concern that the negotiations could completely fall through, all eyes are on whether President Lee's pragmatic diplomacy centered on national interests will be able to find a breakthrough.
(Video by Jeong Sang-bo and Yoon Hyung | Video Editing by Jang Hyun-ki | Design by Cho Sooin)
※
Copying, redistribution, and unauthorized use in AI training are strictly prohibited.