The Importance of the U.S.-South Korea Summit

As President Lee Jae-myung of South Korea prepares for his first official summit with President Donald Trump in Washington, expectations are shaped by both historical precedent and the increasingly transactional nature of alliance politics. At face value, the summit offers a familiar tableau: reaffirmations of friendship, military camaraderie, and shared democratic values. But beneath the optics lies a more urgent question—can the U.S.–ROK alliance be recalibrated, not merely preserved, in an era defined by strategic competition, shifting trade norms, and the erosion of traditional security guarantees?