North Korea’s Kim Jong-un publicly announced over the weekend that he is prepared to meet with President Trump. “If the U.S. drops its hollow obsession with denuclearization and wants to pursue peaceful coexistence with North Korea based on the recognition of reality, there is no reason for us not to sit down with the U.S. Personally, I still have good memories of U.S. President Trump.” I’m not surprised by Mr. Kim’s comments. When the six-party talks with North Korea commenced in 2003, North Korea’s principal representative to the talks often mentioned that North Korea wanted nuclear weapons as a deterrent, never to be used for offensive purposes. The country asked to be treated as we treated Pakistan, a nation that has good relations with the U.S. The North Korean representative said North Korea wanted a good, normal relationship with the U.S. North Korea has consistently been told that the U.S. will never accept North Korea as a nuclear weapons state. However, with complete and verifiable denuclearization, The situation has changed profoundly over the past 20 years. North Korea now has a formidable arsenal of nuclear weapons. Some estimates are 50 to 60 nuclear warheads, reportedly with sufficient fissile material to annually produce 15 to 20 nuclear warheads that can be miniaturized and mated to ballistic missiles. In addition to advances in nuclear weaponization and ballistic missiles, North Korea has made significant progress with hypersonic and cruise missiles and advances with its nuclear submarine program. Of note is North Korea’s new mutual defense treaty with Russia and the 12,000 combat troops North Korea sent for Russia’s war with Ukraine.

Mr. Trump is thinking, “What can we do there?” said Mr. Bolton, meditating on why the president had raised the topic of South Korea’s simply handing over the base, which Mr. Trump claims the Americans are leasing from Seoul. No doubt, Mr. Bolton said, he is also thinking of the value of the previous American headquarters in the Yongsan district of Seoul. After the Americans left, South Korean tycoons scrambled for land not marked as a vast urban park. “Some real estate developers made a lot of money off of it,” Mr. Bolton told the forum staged by the Institute for Corean-American Studies in Philadelphia. (“Corea” is a historic spelling of Korea.) Caught off balance by Mr. Trump’s mention of the base, Koreans scrambled to explain why Mr. Trump’s lust for Camp Humphreys is as zany as his notions for taking over Canada, Greenland and the Panama Canal Zone. Mr. Lee’s national security adviser, Wi Sung-lac, promised to explore what Mr. Trump really had in mind but argued that the Americans do not have a lease on the base. Rather, he said, they are the beneficiaries of a Korean government “grant” that will expire “when facilities are no longer needed.” Mr. Trump’s talk of acquiring the base, gratis, from South Korea inevitably raises concerns that he might follow the advice of those who suggest leaving South Korea for the Koreans to defend. “I just hope that the isolationists in the administration do not convince Trump that we don’t need troops on the Korean Peninsula or Japan,” Mr. Bolton said. Mr. Trump evinced no real interest beyond another fruitless summit with Kim Jong-un and the possible acquisition of a great piece of real estate.

Neither Mr. Trump nor Mr. Lee had a word to say about Mr. Kim’s dispatching thousands of troops and millions of artillery shells for Mr. Putin’s war in Ukraine. Mr. Kim has let it be known, via his loquacious younger sister, Kim Yo-jong, that his relationship with Mr. Trump is “not bad.” Still, he scorns Mr. Lee and denigrates South Korea as the “enemy,” beholden as ever to the U.S. Trump plays up his own relationship with Mr. Kim ― with whom he got nowhere in two more meetings, one in Hanoi in February 2019 and four months later at the truce village of Panmunjom ― and shocked Koreans with the notion of acquiring ownership of Camp Humphreys. The inference was that the base could become a pawn in getting South Korea to pay far more than the $1.1 billion annually that was negotiated during the Biden administration for U.S. defense and ultimately be sold to greedy real estate investors if Mr. Trump decides to leave the South to face the North on its own, as he hinted at during his first term. Mr. Trump’s suggestion cast doubt on the future of a military alliance for which Camp Humphreys provides the headquarters for U.S. Forces Korea and the Combined Forces Command of Korean and American troops. All told, about 45,000 people live on the base, including a majority of the 28,500 U.S. troops in Korea, along with family members and civilian workers. Shopping at a modern mall and living in comfortable apartments, Americans can enjoy the lifestyle of a little America and forget they are smack in the middle of a densely populated region that’s a potential target for North Korean missiles.

John R. Bolton, President Trump’s onetime national security adviser, thinks he knows why the commander in chief has suggested that South Korea donate America’s largest overseas base to the U.S. government. Mr. Trump, after all, “is a real estate developer,” as Mr. Bolton noted sardonically in an online forum. What could be more tempting for future development than Camp Humphreys, which occupies 3,538 acres of prime real estate 40 miles south of Seoul, within easy commuting range of the South Korean capital by frequent express trains? Mr. Bolton, one of Mr. Trump’s fiercest critics, mingled his theory on Mr. Trump’s designs on Camp Humphreys with trenchant criticism of the president’s “incoherent” policies on Ukraine and speculation as to why FBI Director Kash Patel ordered a “suspicious” raid on Mr. Bolton’s Bethesda, Maryland, home. Implicit in Mr. Trump’s cavalier suggestion that South Korea surrender the base to the U.S. is that Seoul has as much to fear from Mr. Trump’s unpredictable words and deeds as do other regions caught up in conflicts to which he offers no real solutions (other than pleas for peace that strong-willed leaders such as Russian ruler Vladimir Putin can ignore). Mr. Trump gave every appearance of getting along just fine with South Korean President Lee Jae-myung at his White House summit in August. He promised to promote a joint session with North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un, with whom Mr. Trump professed to have “fallen in love” at their first summit in Singapore in June 2018. In the end, however, Messrs. Trump and Lee came up with no agreements, deals or guarantees of South Korea’s security against a North Korean regime fortified by a much-strengthened alliance with Russia.

The left was born in the bloodshed of the French Revolution. The crimson tide has run wide and deep ever since. Those riding the tide have included Jacobins, Bolsheviks, National Socialists, Maoists, Black Lives Matter incendiaries, antifa thugs and gender-ideology hit men. Among its victims, over the course of 236 years, are aristocrats, Christians, Jews, bourgeoisie, kulaks, intellectuals, dissidents and conservative hero Charlie Kirk. Our culture of violence was shaped by the revolutionary left, which has infiltrated every aspect of society, including higher education and entertainment. According to a 2024 survey by the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, 25% of liberal college students approve of violence to stop conservatives from speaking on campus. Only 55% of Gen Z believe political violence is never acceptable, compared with 93% of baby boomers and 86% of Gen X. In a 2024 Rasmussen survey, 28% of Democrats said America would have been better off if President Trump had died by an assassin’s bullet. Those celebrating Mr. Kirk’s demise include professors, teachers, physicians, airline pilots, elected officials and even a U.S. Army colonel, since relieved of duty. Can you imagine anyone in a position of authority in 1963 applauding the assassination of President Kennedy? Leftist violence is an almost daily occurrence. New Left philosopher Herbert Marcuse taught a generation of activists that silencing so-called oppressors was justified in the name of the fight for equality. The left’s utopian vision can be realized only with bloodshed. It asks us to give up our property, our families, our faith and our freedom for a classless society.

I will share my experiences with these beautiful Koreans with the world. And I will never forget South Korea and I will return if you need me. Your fight is our fight. So, let’s stand together. Let’s fight for South Korea. May the Lord bless the Republic of Korea and the United States. Thank you, bless you.” The Korea JoongAng Daily captured the essence of Kirk’s message, quoting him as saying: “Their country is totally under attack. The same things that we have been fighting for here, whether it be lawfare in South Korea or mass migration in Japan ? this is a worldwide phenomenon.” The reality of the new South Korean government’s move toward totalitarianism and destruction of its religious and political opponents is exemplified by the arrest and imprisonment of Hak Ja Han Moon. She is an 82-year-old religious leader with a serious heart condition. She is also the leader of a worldwide movement for peace and unification, the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification, formerly known as the Unification Church. She has worked tirelessly for six decades to bring North Korea out of its dictatorship. Her organization has representatives working for peace and freedom in more than 160 countries. It also operates a number of businesses including The Washington Times. Now, she is being treated as a common criminal, and her life is being endangered by the new South Korean government as part of its anti-religion campaign. In Kirk’s memory ? and defense of religious freedom worldwide ? the Trump administration should apply maximum pressure on the new South Korean government to drop its anti-religious, anti-freedom campaign. That would be an achievement that would make Kirk proud that his legacy is real and reaches beyond America.

Secretary of State and acting national security adviser Marco Rubio articulated one of our biggest challenges during Charlie Kirk’s amazing memorial service in Phoenix. “Just days before Kirk passed away, he sent a message from abroad stating, ‘I am in South Korea. When I return to the U.S., I want to discuss various concerns.’” Mr. Rubio was referring to what had become Kirk’s Korean Campaign. Perhaps more than any other national figure, Kirk understood that the new South Korean government seems determined to destroy its opponents and Christianity. It seems equally determined to establish a closed, government-dominated state akin to North Korea and communist China. The new government is not behaving anything like the democratic society with which America has been allied for 75 years ? and previously saved from communist rule. Kirk himself talked about the new government’s threat to religious liberty in a speech in Seoul just days before he was killed. The speech is powerful and a major part of Kirk’s legacy. In it, he pointed out that the new South Korean government is investigating and arresting pastors and threatening the individual freedoms of the Korean people. He warned that if the new government continues its efforts, South Korea’s relationship with America could quickly deteriorate. He also urged South Koreans to not stand by as their liberties are threatened. “Do you know what the best way to fight totalitarianism and dictators is? It’s for good people to rise up together. Thank you for welcoming me as your guest in this amazing country,” Kirk said.

President Trump recently chastised South Korean President Lee Jae-myung and the Democratic Party of Korea for their efforts to oppress all right-wing ideology in South Korea and persecute their political opponents. Although Mr. Lee and his government have feigned ignorance and attempted to explain away their misdeeds as the necessary result of his predecessor’s so-called self-coup, it is evident that Mr. Trump is absolutely correct: Right-wing ideology is being relentlessly purged from South Korea. Yet South Korea is by no means an outlier in international politics. In fact, virtually every nation that has been forced to endure the advent of a left-wing regime over the course of the past decade has vividly oppressed and persecuted right-wing ideology and politics. Meanwhile, Mr. Lee and the DPK have relentlessly oppressed and persecuted all right-wing ideology and politics in South Korea. The DPK has forcibly attempted to preclude South Koreans from exercising their rights to freedom of expression and political assembly in an attempt to censor and eliminate all right-wing ideology from public discourse. Since its victory in South Korea’s tainted election this year, the DPK has brutally persecuted its political opponents and any right-wing political actors. In fact, the DPK has leveraged its newly minted special counsel to raid the headquarters of its political rivals, the People Power Party, with impunity. It has even started to broach legislation that seeks to dissolve the PPP entirely. The open persecution of right-wing ideology and politics that has gripped South Korea during Mr. Lee’s regime is by no means abnormal or uncommon within the international political system.

Hyundai secured many legal temporary business visas, known as B-1 visas, through the U.S. government to help launch its Georgia plant. The B-1 visa allows short-term training, contract signing and consulting, but not full-time construction work. Of those detained in the raid, many had expired B-1 visas or were doing work inappropriate to the terms of the visa. Others had crossed the border illegally. The South Korean press lamented the difficulties of obtaining U.S. visas to import South Korean workers to American shores, largely ignoring the crux of the argument: that foreign companies looking to invest in America need to hire American workers. Foreign nationals must acquire an appropriate visa, such as the H-1B, L1 or E2, to legally obtain employment at workplaces located in the U.S. But as those visas can take months to obtain and their numbers are capped, they are often deemed impractical for companies that need to dispatch workers frequently or on short notice, The Korea Herald moaned of the raid. “Industry officials also complain that wait times for all types of visas have lengthened since the start of the Trump administration.” On Sunday, U.S. border czar Tom Homan said on CNN that the workplace raids would continue. “You’re going to see a lot more worksite enforcement operations,” he said. “It’s a crime to knowingly hire an illegal alien.” “Following the Immigration Enforcement Operation on the Hyundai Battery Plant in Georgia, I am hereby calling on all Foreign Companies investing in the United States to please respect our immigration laws,” Mr. Trump Truthed on Sunday.

Restrictions on free speech undermine personal freedoms and self-governance and move Britain down the path toward Communist China or North Korea. Socialist policies remove the motive to work and undermine a once-great nation. Failure to crack down on crime strikes fear in citizens and terror in the hearts of minors. Even legal immigration, without assimilation, can cause major problems for a just society. Restraints on speech aren’t the only problem in the United Kingdom. Years of socialist policies are faintly catching up with the British economy. Former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher warned of this dilemma in 1976, saying, “The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people’s money.” Today, low productivity, stagnant real wages, weak investment and high housing costs in the U.K. have led to poor economic growth for more than a decade-and-a-half. Excessive government spending commitments have increased the national debt and cost-of-living pressures on citizens. The Labour Party took charge of the national government last year and continues to push for increased government spending on expanding the government-run health-care system, a new, government-owned clean power company and plans to build 1.5 million new homes. Labour leaders claim they can pay for it by clamping down on tax evaders, yet the national debt continues to grow. Public safety is also a persistent issue in the United Kingdom. Data shows that the total number of sexual offenses in England and Wales has risen dramatically. Boris Johnson, who previously served as British prime minister and mayor of London, posted this on X: “Everywhere I go I find international investors worried about levels of crime and disorder in Labour-run London.”