President Moon Jae-in will make an official working visit to the United States May 21-22 at the invitation of President Donald Trump. The two Presidents will hold a summit at the White House on May 22.

The two heads of state have continued close communication by holding three summits previous to this time and 14 telephone conversations over the past year. The summit to be held during this visit will be President Moon’s fifth meeting with President Trump. 

President Moon will depart from Seoul late in the afternoon on May 21 and arrive in Washington D.C. in the evening the same day (local time). He will stay one night at Blair House, the President’s Guest House, where he also stayed during his visit to the United States last year.

The next day, President Moon will have meetings in the morning with key U.S senior officials responsible for foreign and security policies. 

At the White House, President Moon and President Trump will hold a one-on-one meeting at around noon, which will be followed by an expanded summit over luncheon in another place. 

In the late afternoon, President Moon is scheduled to drop by the Korean Legation building, which served as the overseas diplomatic office of the Korean Empire. The legation building is slated to be reopened in the morning of the day to commemorate the 136th anniversary of the signing of the 1882 U.S.-Korea Treaty of Peace, Amity, Commerce and Navigation and the 130th anniversary of the opening of the Legation. On the occasion of the President's visit there, it is hoped that a meeting with the descendants of the first Minister Plenipotentiary of the Korean Empire to the United States Park Jeong-yang and two other officials can be arranged. 

After these events, President Moon is scheduled to return home early in the morning on May 24. 

The Korea-U.S. summit, which is to take place about three weeks before the North Korea-U.S. summit, is expected to play a bridging role to ensure that the success of the inter-Korean summit in April leads to the success of the summit between North Korea and the United States.

In particular, the two leaders are expected to have in-depth discussions focusing on concrete ways to implement the complete denuclearization of North Korea and, moreover, the settlement of permanent peace on the Korean Peninsula, going beyond the series of frequent and close communications by phone so far.   

In addition, they are expected to discuss ways to guarantee a bright future for the North if it executes complete denuclearization. 

President Moon’s visit to the United States this time is expected to further solidify friendship and trust between the two leaders, based on which the foundation for developing a forward-looking alliance and partnership between the two countries will be strengthened.