Seoul: President Lee Jae Myung returned home Friday from a trip to New York, where he unveiled a new peace initiative on the Korean Peninsula at the U.N. General Assembly. In his first U.N. address since taking office in June, Lee also declared South Korea's full return to the global stage after months of political turmoil following former President Yoon Suk Yeol's failed martial law attempt.
According to Yonhap News Agency, under the so-called "END" initiative, Lee told the United Nations that South Korea will focus on "exchange," "normalization," and "denuclearization" to promote peace on the Korean Peninsula. During a meeting with U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Lee said he expects to make progress in trade talks with Washington based on "commercial rationality." The meeting between Lee and Bessent came as Seoul and Washington have made little progress on details of South Korea's US$350 billion investment pledge in the United States.
On Thursday, Lee hosted the "Korea Investment Summit" at the New York Stock Exchange to attract fresh capital inflows and strengthen the Korean stock market. Earlier this week, Lee met BlackRock CEO Larry Fink to discuss cooperation in artificial intelligence (AI) and renewable energy, leading to the signing of an agreement to build AI data centers under Seoul's vision of becoming Asia's AI hub.