When South Korean President Lee Jae Myung meets U.S. President Donald Trump next week for their first summit, he will be asked to pay more for the upkeep of American troops on the peninsula during talks set to be dominated by security issues and China.

But Lee - a seasoned politican - successfully turned on the charm and averted what officials were fearing - a repeat of what happened to Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky or South Africa's Cyril Ramaphosa. Lee marveled at the new Oval Office decor and praised the personal rapport that the US president has with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.