South Korea welcomed U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday with a replica gold crown and awarded him with the “Grand Order of Mugunghwa”, the country’s highest decoration, the presidential office said.
Trump landed in South Korea on the final leg of a trip through Asia that also saw stops in Malaysia and Japan, with high-profile trade talks expected with South Korean President Lee Jae Myung and Chinese President Xi Jinping.
U.S. and South Korean warplanes escorted Air Force One on approach, and on the tarmac a South Korean military band greeted Trump with a rendition of “YMCA” and guns fired a salute.
Lee is hoping to win concessions from Trump in drawn out negotiations aimed at lowering U.S. tariffs on South Korea, and has wooed the U.S. president by praising his outreach to North Korea.
Lee’s office said that in recognition of Trump’s role as a “peacemaker” on the Korean peninsula, he was awarded the “Grand Order of Mugunghwa”, which is named after South Korea’s national flower, a pink hibiscus also known as the Rose of Sharon in English.
“I’d like to wear it right now,” Trump said when presented with the glittering award. A South Korean official said he was the first U.S. president to receive the honour.
During his first term, Trump held a series of summits with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un before the talks broke down as Pyongyang surged ahead with developing its nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles.
On Wednesday, Trump repeated his invitation to meet Kim again, but so far North Korea has not commented on his latest overtures.
Lee and Trump met at a museum in the city of Gyeongju, a quiet tourist town filled with historic tombs and palaces from its time as the capital of the ancient Silla kingdom, which ruled about a third of the Korean peninsula until the 9th century.
Trump was gifted a replica of the golden Cheonmachong crown. The delicate original, which was found in a tomb in Gyeongju, features towering gold prongs and dangling leaf shapes.
“This symbolizes the history of Silla, which maintained a long-term era of peace on the Korean Peninsula, and a new era of peaceful coexistence and common growth on the Korean Peninsula that the United States and South Korea will work together for.”
The leaders had a working lunch that included Thousand Island salad dressing, in what Lee’s office said was a nod to Trump’s “success story in his hometown of New York.” Also on the menu were unspecified local specialties “according to President Trump’s preferences.”
The day will wrap up with a dinner with the leaders of Vietnam, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Thailand, and Singapore.
Three diplomatic sources said some of those leaders changed their schedules to accommodate Trump, who arrived and will leave before the scheduled Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC)leader’s summit on Friday and Saturday.
Gyeongju is not typically the scene for such international events, and foreign diplomats complained of difficulties booking rooms, finding suitable venues for meetings, and having to move staff from Seoul.
On Wednesday, South Korea’s Foreign Ministry disputed reports of room shortages, saying only about half the available acommodation in the area was booked.
(Reporting by Josh Smith)
