Trump Claims South Korean President Declined Request to Help With Iran

U.S. President Donald Trump claimed that he asked South Korean President Lee Jae-myung for assistance regarding Iran, but was effectively turned down.

He reiterated claims he had disclosed in a social media post the previous day.

Speaking to reporters at the White House on the 17th local time, President Trump mentioned, "When I recently spoke with the South Korean president, whom I like, I said, 'Would you give us a little help on Iran? We don't need the help, but if you'd like to help, help.'"

He continued, saying that (President Lee Jae-myung) replied, "'No, thanks,'" and added, "We have 39,000 U.S. troops in South Korea protecting them from Kim Jong-un, who is right next door, and you won't even help us with a very easy military operation in Iran. It's really strange."

President Trump's reference to "39,000 U.S. troops" appears to be a misstatement of the actual U.S. Forces Korea personnel count of 28,500.

President Trump also claimed that (President Lee) said, "'We'd rather not get involved,'" and added, "Why are we involved in protecting you?"

Mentioning both South Korea and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), he stated, "We can't go around protecting all these countries when they don't step up to help us."

At the same time, President Trump remarked that he thinks President Lee is "actually a very nice person."

In addition, President Trump expressed dissatisfaction while mentioning South Korea's defense cost-sharing contributions.

He claimed that during his first term, he had requested an increase in South Korea's defense cost-sharing and achieved some results, only for the subsequent Biden administration to roll it back, adding, "We could have gotten much more money."

It remains unclear whether President Trump actually discussed the deployment of troops to Iran during a phone call or conversation with President Lee, or what specific assistance was requested.

The most recent official phone call between President Lee and President Trump took place on the night of May 17.

Kang Yu-jung, senior spokesperson for the presidential office, previously explained that the leaders discussed the situation in the Middle East during that call.

(Photo: AP, Yonhap News)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.