| | | | |  | | By Katherine Long | Presented by American Fuel & Petrochemical Manufacturers | | 
South Korea's President Yoon Suk Yeol listens as President Joe Biden speaks during a news conference in the Rose Garden of the White House on April 26, 2023. | Evan Vucci/AP Photo | TRUST ISSUES — When the White House welcomes South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol to a black-tie dinner tonight, the formal event will highlight the 70th anniversary of the partnership between the two nations. But Yoon’s visit is more than just ceremonial. The backdrop for his week in Washington is a sense of uncertainty surrounding the relationship between longtime allies, even as both Yoon and President Joe Biden stress the alliance is as strong as ever. The relationship was tested by the recent Pentagon leak of classified information on the war in Ukraine, where leaked intelligence documents suggested the U.S. was spying on South Korea. Yoon dismissed those claims and his government did not air any public complaints, an approach that came at some political cost as it drew public criticism in South Korea as an act of obedience and submission towards the U.S. “There’s increasing doubts and distrust about whether or not the U.S. is actually trustworthy to deliver on a commitment to defend South Korea from a potential nuclear attack by North Korea,” Scott Snyder, senior fellow for Korea Studies and director of the U.S.-Korea policy program at the Council on Foreign Relations, said in an interview with Nightly. While Yoon has focused on strengthening relationships with allies abroad, back home the South Korean public has also expressed growing displeasure with his handling of domestic issues, such as inflation and record high energy prices. During his summit with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida on March 16 — a nation with which South Korea has a strained relationship due to Japan’s brutal history of colonial rule in the Korean Peninsula during the early- to mid-1900s — Yoon announced a plan that no longer demands Japanese companies compensate South Korean forced labor victims. That plan, which 60% of South Koreans oppose, generated a swift backlash. Following his summit with Kishida, Yoon’s approval rating dropped to 30 percent. As for Biden, his Indo-Pacific strategy is largely reliant on maintaining strong relationships with both Japan and South Korea. And despite longstanding tensions, the three countries have made it clear that a trilateral partnership is a priority in the face of China’s growing economic and militaristic competitiveness, Russia’s war on Ukraine and increasing threats from North Korea. One of the Biden administration’s asks from Yoon includes a block on filling shortfalls on chips, anticipating Beijing’s possible ban on sales by U.S. company Micron, according to the Financial Times. South Korea remains one of the most China-dependent economies, with exports making up 40 percent of the country’s national income. “South Korea has been, prior to Yoon’s alignment, identified as kind of the weak link for the U.S. because it had been so exposed to China economically despite the security alliance to the United States,” Snyder said. “And that means that there is something that South Korea has to lose.” Biden is also asking Seoul to provide munitions to Kyiv, a move that would force Yoon to override its Foreign Trade Act that blocks the sale of weapons to countries at war and the re-export to third-party countries. South Korea has previously supported Biden’s push for Ukraine aid and provided $100 million to Ukraine last year. The U.S. and South Korea unveiled a new agreement Wednesday that details U.S. commitment to providing military support for South Korea in the event of a North Korean attack, coupled with South Korea’s public promise to refrain from developing nuclear weapons. The two leaders also held a joint press conference in the Rose Garden Wednesday, where Biden bolstered Yoon’s hand by asserting that a nuclear attack by North Korea against the U.S. or its allies would “result in the end of whatever regime were to take such an action.” With his support for Biden’s Indo-Pacific agenda, Yoon has positioned himself in stark contrast to his predecessor Moon Jae-in, who remained unmoved on issues related to China or Japan. “Yoon has got himself caught in his own dilemma because he’s been talking about how South Korea should be on a global pivotal stage. And that’s fine, except that that also could be expensive,” Snyder said. “It’s not clear how the South Korean public feels about paying international bills. It will come as part of the process of taking that step to becoming a player on international matters that are far from Korea.” Welcome to POLITICO Nightly. Reach out with news, tips and ideas at nightly@politico.com. Or contact tonight’s author at klong@politico.com or on Twitter at @katherinealong.
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Former advice columnist E. Jean Carroll arrives to federal court in New York, Wednesday, April 26, 2023. | Seth Wenig/AP Photo | — McCarthy pushes ahead on GOP debt bill after dead-of-night rewrite: House Republicans passed their sweeping debt-limit and spending-cuts plan after a tumultuous 24 hours. Now, they have to see if it will bring Biden to the negotiating table. The vote followed a frantic day of eleventh-hour wrangling as Speaker Kevin McCarthy and his allies sought to lock down potential defectors ranging from conservatives to Midwesterners. In the end, only four Republicans voted against the legislation — though the victory is merely symbolic given the bill’s DOA status in the Senate. — Biden: I’ll meet with McCarthy — but not on debt limit: Biden said Wednesday that he is open to meeting again with House Speaker Kevin McCarthy — but would not give in to the Republican’s demand for negotiations on the debt limit. “Happy to meet with McCarthy,” Biden said at the end of a brief press conference at the White House. “But not on whether or not the debt limit gets extended. That’s not negotiable.” The president’s stance reflects the White House’s continued skepticism that the speaker ultimately won’t be able to keep Republicans united behind a single set of demands. — I’m here because Donald Trump raped me,’ Carroll says on witness stand: In blunt and at times emotional testimony, E. Jean Carroll took the stand Wednesday in her civil lawsuit accusing Donald Trump of rape, saying of the alleged incident that “my whole reason for being alive in that moment was to get out of that room.” Carroll, a magazine columnist, has accused Trump of sexually assaulting her in a dressing room of luxury department store Bergdorf Goodman in the mid-1990s. She is suing him for battery and defamation in a trial that began Tuesday in Manhattan federal court. He has denied the allegations, saying the incident “never happened” and that she has perpetrated a “hoax.”
| | | | STEP INSIDE THE WEST WING: What's really happening in West Wing offices? Find out who's up, who's down, and who really has the president’s ear in our West Wing Playbook newsletter, the insider's guide to the Biden White House and Cabinet. For buzzy nuggets and details that you won't find anywhere else, subscribe today. | | | | | | | | | BIG BUY — A top Democratic super PAC will launch a six-figure digital advertising blitz in six battleground states on Wednesday, a day after Biden kicked off his 2024 reelection campaign, reports POLITICO’s Myah Ward. Priorities USA, according to plans first shared with POLITICO, will also announce its overall investment target of $75 million for the 2024 presidential cycle — $5 million more than its 2020 target. The group will use the money to reach voters in key battleground states including Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. CHECKED OUT — Tech billionaire and Republican megadonor Peter Thiel, an early backer of Trump who later broke with him, has told associates he is not planning to donate to any political candidates in 2024, Reuters reports. Thiel is unhappy with the Republican Party's focus on hot-button U.S. cultural issues, said one of the sources, a business associate, citing abortion and restrictions on which bathrooms transgender students can use in schools as two examples. He has contributed around $50 million to state and federal political candidates and campaigns since 2000, and he was the 10th largest individual donor to either party in the 2022 midterm congressional elections, according to the non-profit OpenSecrets. ASA’S IN — Former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson formally launched his Republican presidential campaign Wednesday, pledging to “bring out the best of America” and aiming to draw contrasts with other GOP hopefuls on top issues, including how best to reform federal law enforcement agencies. Hutchinson kicked off his 2024 bid in his hometown of Bentonville, the Associated Press reports, on the same steps where he launched an unsuccessful U.S. Senate campaign 30 years ago. The stalwart conservative, who announced in a television interview earlier this month that he intended to run, has been a rare figure among announced or expected GOP presidential hopefuls in his willingness to criticize former President Donald Trump, calling for him to drop out of the 2024 race instead of seeking another White House term.
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Chinese President Xi Jinping is seen during a joint press conference with France's President Emmanuel Macron at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, China on April 6, 2023. | Thibault Camus/AP Photo | FIRE EXTINGUISHER — Chinese leader Xi Jinping on Wednesday reassured President Volodymyr Zelenskyy that Beijing would not add “fuel to the fire” of the war in Ukraine and insisted the time was ripe to “resolve the crisis politically.” While Xi’s remarks — as reported by the state’s Xinhua news agency — made no specific reference to international fears that China could send arms to Russia’s invading forces in Ukraine, his words will be read as a signal that Beijing won’t give direct military assistance to Russian President Vladimir Putin. Xi was making his first call to Zelenskyy more than 400 days into the Russian war against Ukraine, and he suggested that Kyiv should pursue “political resolution” through dialogue — presumably with Russia — to bring peace to Europe.
| | | | GO INSIDE THE 2023 MILKEN INSTITUTE GLOBAL CONFERENCE: POLITICO is proud to partner with the Milken Institute to produce a special edition "Global Insider" newsletter featuring exclusive coverage, insider nuggets and unparalleled insights from the 2023 Global Conference, which will convene leaders in health, finance, politics, philanthropy and entertainment from April 30-May 3. This year’s theme, Advancing a Thriving World, will challenge and inspire attendees to lean into building an optimistic coalition capable of tackling the issues and inequities we collectively face. Don’t miss a thing — subscribe today for a front row seat. | | | | | | | | | | $1.2 billion The amount in state and local taxes that Disney paid and collected in 2022. The California-based entertainment giant — Florida’s largest taxpayer — filed suit in federal court Wednesday alleging that GOP Gov. Ron DeSantis and his hand-picked oversight board retaliated against the company and violated Disney’s First Amendment rights, among other claims. | | | | ROGUE PRODUCERS — Last week, a track that used AI to create an original song using Drake and The Weeknd’s voices went viral and gained millions of listens across the internet before being taken down after a major label complained. It has a lot of people wondering whether it represents the looming future of music. As AI music becomes more accessible and popular, it has become the center of a cultural debate. AI creators defend the technology as a way to make music more accessible, while many music industry professionals and other critics accuse creators of copyright infringement and cultural appropriation. A Discord server called AI Hub hosts a large community of AI music creators behind some of the most viral AI songs, reports Chloe Xiang for Vice.
| | |  On this date in 2005: A Lebanese soldier stands guard as in the background a bus carrying Syrian soldiers crosses into Syria at the Lebanese border point of Masnaa, in the Bekaa Valley, east of Beirut, Lebanon. Damascus withdrew the last of its 15,000 soldiers on April 26 in a hurried exit from its western neighbor under international pressure that piled on massive protests in Lebanon over the assassination of former Premier Rafik Hariri about two and a half months earlier. | Hussein Malla/AP Photo | Did someone forward this email to you? Sign up here.
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