The new South Korean president, Lee Jae-myung, calls himself a foreign policy “pragmatist”. He says he is driven by South Korea’s national interest, rather than ideology, and has spoken of his desire to improve relations with China and North Korea.

Korea watchers want to know, as the American leader spends an hour and a half on the phone with the Chinese party boss, Xi Jinping.

On June 3, a sixty-year-old maverick candidate from South Korea’s liberal Democratic Party (DPK) won the presidency in a snap election following a botched coup six months earlier by former president Yoon Suk-yeol.