South Korea to Host Trump–Xi State Visits Amid APEC ‘Super Week’

South Korea announced that U.S. President Donald Trump and China’s President Xi Jinping will pay state visits next week, coinciding with Asia–Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) events the country is hosting. According to Wi Sung-lac, the presidential security adviser, President Lee Jae-myung will hold separate summit meetings with each leader, positioning Seoul as a venue for high-level engagement at a moment of heightened regional and global tensions.

Wi framed the diplomatic calendar as an opportunity to advance a shared agenda focused on stability and growth. He said that, through a sequence of meetings—South Korea with the United States, the United States with China, and South Korea with China—Seoul intends to demonstrate its role as a platform while working to build consensus around peace, prosperity, and regional stability. The White House has already indicated that President Trump will meet President Xi in South Korea as part of a broader swing through Asia, with the encounter taking place against the backdrop of an escalation in trade frictions between the world’s two largest economies.

On the bilateral front with Washington, Wi said the South Korean side hopes to make progress on security coordination and on U.S. tariff measures affecting Korean exports during President Lee’s meeting with President Trump. He cautioned, however, that it remains unclear whether the two governments will be able to reach any formal agreement next week. That uncertainty reflects, in part, the current distance between the allies over the scale and structure of Korean capital commitments tied to a previously announced package—valued at $350 billion—linked to the reduction of U.S. tariffs. South Korea’s industry minister characterized the gap on cash-investment expectations as “sharp,” indicating that negotiations remain sensitive.

President Lee’s planned discussion with President Xi will emphasize the deepening of the bilateral partnership and address issues related to North Korea, Wi said. The meeting is intended to complement the broader APEC agenda in South Korea, where leaders are expected to weigh regional economic integration alongside security concerns that increasingly shape supply chains, technology flows, and energy markets.

Before the APEC proceedings, President Lee will travel to Malaysia for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) summit from October 26–27, an event that President Trump will also attend. On the margins, Lee is slated to meet Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet to discuss the recent surge in online scam activity and related cross-border enforcement concerns. Wi described the coming period as a “super week” of multilateral diplomacy, beginning with ASEAN deliberations and continuing into the APEC summitry in Gyeongju, with Seoul aiming to use both tracks to reinforce cooperative approaches to security and economic governance.