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President Lee Jae Myung to skip NATO summit as Middle East tensions escalate

Published: 22 Jun. 2025, 18:53 Updated: 22 Jun. 2025, 19:38

SARAH KIM
[email protected]

Security cameras overlook the area near the World Forum hosting the upcoming NATO summit in The Hague on June 19.[AFP/YONHAP]

President Lee Jae Myung will not attend the NATO summit in The Hague next week, the presidential office announced Sunday evening, amid rising tensions in the Middle East.

The announcement follows a U.S. attack on key Iranian nuclear sites early Sunday ahead of the NATO summit, a major forum for global leaders to discuss security issues.

“Our government actively reviewed the president’s attendance at the NATO summit despite pressing items on the national agenda following his inauguration,” National Security Adviser Wi Sung-lac said in a press statement.

“However, after comprehensively considering various domestic issues and uncertainties stemming from the situation in the Middle East, it has been decided that the president will not attend in person this time,” Wi said.

The announcement contradicted expectations that Lee would make his second overseas trip as president to the Netherlands to take part in the NATO summit, due to take place on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Wi said that the government is in talks with NATO to decide which Korean official will attend in place of the president.

Korean President Lee Jae Myung, center left, shakes hands with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky after taking a group photo with the leaders of the G7 and invited countries at Kananaskis, Alberta, in Canada on June 17, [PRESIDENTIAL OFFICE]

Lee returned early Thursday from the G7 summit in Canada, which was an opportunity for him to hold icebreaker sessions with global leaders and establish a diplomatic footing.

However, Lee did not meet with U.S. President Donald Trump at the G7 summit, as their scheduled first meeting fell through following Trump’s early departure from Canada amid the Iran-Israel conflict.

The presidential office confirmed that Lee was set to meet Trump until the U.S. president decided to return early to Washington late Monday, and that the U.S. side had been in touch to ask for Seoul’s “understanding.” Lee had called for a meeting to be rescheduled soon.

Prior to the presidential office’s announcement on Sunday, there was also interest in whether Lee would be able to hold bilateral talks with Trump on the margins of the NATO summit.

Lee’s first meeting with the U.S. president is expected to play a pivotal role in the direction of tariff negotiations with the United States as the Trump administration’s deadline of July 8 nears.

Trump repeated his call on Friday for NATO member states to spend 5 percent of their GDP on defense, saying that the United States shouldn’t bear the alliance’s financial burden. He has often linked defense matters to trade talks.

In a separate press statement, presidential spokesperson Kang Yu-jung said that the president had been “actively considering attending the NATO summit” despite pending domestic issues since taking office two weeks ago, but “considering various domestic issues and the uncertainties caused by the Middle East situation, it was decided that it was absolutely not possible for him to attend in person.”

The Lee administration, in turn, faces an unexpected diplomatic test with escalating tensions in the Middle East and the U.S. military’s direct involvement in the Iran-Israel conflict.

The South Korean government has expressed its desire to address the conflict from a “nonproliferation” standpoint, appearing mindful of its broader implications — particularly in relation to North Korea’s illicit nuclear weapons program.

Updated, June 22: Added presidential spokesperson's statement.

BY SARAH KIM [[email protected]]