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

He reiterated the claims he previously disclosed in a social media post the day before.

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, "(President Lee Jae-myung) replied, 'No, thanks,'" and added, "We have 39,000 U.S. troops in South Korea protecting them from their neighbor, Kim Jong-un, yet you won't 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 an incorrect mention of the actual 28,500 U.S. service members stationed in South Korea.

President Trump also claimed, "(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 cannot 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 the scale of South Korea's defense cost-sharing contributions.

Claiming that during his first term he requested and partially secured an increase in South Korea's defense cost-sharing, which was later rolled back under the Biden administration, he asserted, "We could have gotten much more money."

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

The most recent official telephone conversation 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 situation in the Middle East was discussed during the two leaders' phone call at that time.

(Photo: AP, Yonhap News)