![Prime Minister Kim Min-seok speaks at a meeting of reporters at the Prime Minister's Office in Samcheong-dong, Jongno-gu, Seoul on the 2nd. [Yonhap News]](https://www.europesays.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/news-p.v1.20260202.923ba73538044d2ea68dbacafec01f32_P1.jpg)
사진 확대 Prime Minister Kim Min-seok speaks at a meeting of reporters at the Prime Minister’s Office in Samcheong-dong, Jongno-gu, Seoul on the 2nd. [Yonhap News]
Regarding the “hot line” established with Vice President JD Vance before U.S. President Donald Trump’s “pressure on tariff re-recognition,” Prime Minister Kim Min-seok said, “I think we did a good job of opening the hot line just before that situation.”
Prime Minister Kim said at a New Year’s press conference held at the prime minister’s Seoul mission on the 2nd, “Since then, I have heard some in Korea say, ‘What is the meaning of the hot line?’ about President Trump’s sudden remarks on tariff hikes.”
Regarding President Trump’s message at the time, he explained, “As far as we know, most people within the U.S. government, except for Secretary of Commerce Howard Rutnick, were not aware of it in advance.”
“Some say it’s our government’s diplomatic failure, but we can’t say it’s the U.S. government’s failure (that I didn’t know within the U.S. government),” he said. “That’s why this issue was President Trump’s unique way of raising messages.”
![Prime Minister Kim Min-seok speaks at a meeting of reporters at the Prime Minister's Office in Samcheong-dong, Jongno-gu, Seoul on the 2nd. [Yonhap News]](https://www.europesays.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/news-p.v1.20260202.63c6339cf808469b94f93ecd1ab7df86_P1.jpg)
사진 확대 Prime Minister Kim Min-seok speaks at a meeting of reporters at the Prime Minister’s Office in Samcheong-dong, Jongno-gu, Seoul on the 2nd. [Yonhap News]
Regarding whether the hotline is in operation, he said, “Although the hotline is not the only one operating, several existing contact lines, including the hotline with Vice President Vance, are being operated and are progressing to the current situation after understanding each other’s true intentions.”
Prime Minister Kim said, “As a matter of fact, it is completely different from the fact that some media at home and abroad interpreted Vice President Vance’s ‘Coupang comments’ as if they were the background of President Trump’s tariff message,” adding, “I don’t know if it is the Coupang’s intention, but it is different from the confirmed intention of the U.S. government.”
He added, “The response to Coupang has been exchanged in terms of fully communicating with each other so that legal issues are carried out according to the Korean government’s position and that they do not turn into unnecessary trade issues between the two countries and will be managed in the future.”