United States presidential visits to East Asia explained

Ten United States presidents have made presidential visits to East Asia. The first presidential trip to a country in East Asia was made by Dwight D. Eisenhower (as president-elect) in 1952. Since then, all presidents, except John F. Kennedy, have traveled to one or more nations in the region while in office.

To date, 25 visits have been made to Japan, 20 to South Korea, 14 to China, and one each to Mongolia and to North Korea.

Table of visit

President	Dates	Countries	Locations	Key details
Dwight D. Eisenhower^[1]			Seoul	Visit to Korean combat zone. (Visit made as President-elect.)
		Taipei	State visit. Met with President Chiang Kai-shek
	nowrap		Seoul	Met with Prime Minister Heo Jeong. Addressed the National Assembly.
Lyndon B. Johnson^[2]	nowrap			Seoul, Suwon	State visit. Met with President Park Chung-hee and Prime Minister Chung Il-kwon. Addressed National Assembly.
Richard Nixon^[3]				State Visit. Met with Party Chairman Mao Zedong and Premier Zhou Enlai.
Gerald Ford				State visit. Met with Prime Minister Kakuei Tanaka.
			Seoul	Met with President Park Chung-hee.
		China	Peking	Official visit. Met with Party Chairman Mao Zedong and Vice Premier Deng Xiaoping
Jimmy Carter^[4]		Japan		State visit; met with Emperor Hirohito and Prime Minister Masayoshi Ōhira. Attended the 5th G7 summit.
			Seoul	State visit. Met with President Park Chung-hee and Prime Minister Choi Kyu-hah.
		Japan	Tokyo	Official visit; attended memorial services for former Prime Minister Masayoshi Ōhira; met with Emperor Hirohito, President Ziaur Rahman of Bangladesh, Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser of Australia, Prime Minister Prem Tinsulanonda of Thailand, and Premier Hua Guofeng of China.
Ronald Reagan^[5]		Japan	Tokyo	State visit; met with Emperor Hirohito and Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone and addressed the National Diet.
			Seoul, Demilitarized Zone	State visit. Met with President Chun Doo-hwan. Addressed the National Assembly and visited U.S. troops.
				State visit. Met with President Li Xiannian and Premier Zhao Ziyang.
		Japan	Tokyo	Attended the 12th G7 summit.
George H. W. Bush^[6]		Japan	Tokyo	Attended the funeral of Emperor Hirohito. Met with Emperor Akihito, the kings of Belgium, Jordan and Spain, the presidents of Brazil, Egypt, France, the Federal Republic of Germany, Israel, Italy, Nigeria, the Philippines, Portugal and Zaire, and the prime ministers of Japan, Pakistan, Singapore, Thailand and Turkey.
		China	Beijing	Met with President Yang Shangkun and Premier Li Peng. Also met with Prince Norodom Sihanouk of Cambodia.
			Seoul	Official visit. Addressed the National Assembly.
			Seoul	Met with President Roh Tae-woo and senior Korean officials. Also signed a science and technology agreement, addressed the National Assembly, and visited U.S. military personnel.
		Japan	Kyoto, Kashihara, Tokyo	Met with Emperor Akihito, Prime Minister Kiichi Miyazawa and senior Japanese officials.
Bill Clinton^[7]		Japan	Tokyo	Attended the 19th G7 summit. Met with Russian President Boris Yeltsin.
			Seoul	Met with President Kim Young-sam. Addressed the National Assembly. Visited U.S. military personnel.
			Cheju Island	Met with President Kim Young-sam. Proposed four-nation peace talks.
			Tokyo	State visit. Issued joint statement on U.S.-Japanese security relations. Addressed the Diet and U.S. Navy personnel.
		China	Xi'an, Beijing, Shanghai, Guilin, Hong Kong	State visit. Met with President Jiang Zemin. Visited the Forbidden City and the Great Wall of China. Delivered a speech at Peking University.
		Japan	Tokyo	Met with Emperor Akihito and Prime Minister Keizō Obuchi. Addressed American Chamber of Commerce.
			Seoul, Osan	Met with President Kim Dae-jung. Addressed U.S. military personnel.
			Tokyo	Attended the funeral of former Prime Minister Keizō Obuchi.
			Nago	Attended the 26th G8 summit.
George W. Bush^[8]			Shanghai	Attended the APEC Summit.
		Japan	Tokyo	Met with Emperor Akihito and Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi. Addressed the Diet.
				Met with President Kim Dae-jung. Visited the Korean Demilitarized Zone. Addressed U.S. military personnel.
		China	Beijing	Met with President Jiang Zemin and Premier Zhu Rongji.
		Japan	Tokyo	Met with Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi.
			Kyoto	Met with Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi
			Pusan, Gyeongju, Osan	Attended the APEC Summit. Met with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Addressed U.S. military personnel.
		China	Beijing	Met with President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao.
		Mongolia	Ulaanbaatar	Met with President Nambaryn Enkhbayar and Prime Minister Tsakhiagiin Elbegdorj.
				Attended the 34th G8 summit. Met with Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Chinese President Hu Jintao and South Korean President Lee Myung-bak.
			Seoul	Met with President Lee Myung-bak. Addressed U.S. military personnel.
		China	Beijing	Attended the opening ceremonies of the Summer Olympics. Met with President Hu Jintao and Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.
Barack Obama^[9]		Japan	Tokyo	Met with Emperor Akihito and Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama.
		China	Shanghai, Beijing	Met with Shanghai Party Secretary Yu Zhengsheng and Mayor Han Zheng; also took part in a town hall meeting with Shanghai students. Met with President Hu Jintao, NPC Chairman Wu Bangguo and Premier Wen Jiabao. Visited the Forbidden City and the Great Wall of China.
			Seoul, Osan	Met with President Lee Myung-bak. Visited with U.S. troops at Osan Air Base.
			Seoul	Attended the G-20 Summit. Met with President Lee Myung-bak.
		Japan	Yokohama, Kamakura	Attended the APEC Summit. Met with Prime Minister Naoto Kan.
			Seoul	Attended the Nuclear Security Summit. Met with President Lee Myung-bak. Visited the Korean Demilitarized Zone.
		Japan	Tokyo	Met with Emperor Akihito and Prime Minister Shinzō Abe.
			Seoul	Met with President Park Geun-hye. Visited with U.S. troops at Yongsan Garrison.
		China	Beijing	Attended the APEC Summit. Met with President Xi Jinping, Premier Li Keqiang and NPC Chairman Zhang Dejiang.^[10]
		Japan	Shima, Hiroshima	Attended the 42nd G7 summit. Visited the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park.
		China	Hangzhou	Attended the G-20 Summit.
Donald Trump		Japan	Tokyo	Met with Emperor Akihito and Prime Minister Shinzō Abe.
			Seoul	Met with President Moon Jae-in. Addressed the National Assembly.
		China	Beijing	Met with President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Keqiang.
		Japan	Tokyo	State visit. Met with Emperor Naruhito and Prime Minister Shinzō Abe.
		Japan	Osaka	Attended the G-20 Summit.
			Seoul, Korean Demilitarized Zone	Met with President Moon Jae-in. Visited the Korean Demilitarized Zone. Attended the Koreas–United States DMZ Summit with President Moon and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un at the Inter-Korean Freedom House on the southern side of the Joint Security Area of the Korean Demilitarized Zone. Visited U.S. troops at Osan Air Base.
			Joint Security Area	Briefly walked into the northern side of the Joint Security Area of the Korean Demilitarized Zone, accompanied by North Korean Leader Kim Jong-un, becoming the first sitting U.S. president to enter North Korea.
Joe Biden			Seoul	Met with President Yoon Suk-yeol. Visited with U.S. troops at Yongsan Garrison.
		Japan	Tokyo	Met with Emperor Naruhito and Prime Minister Fumio Kishida. Attended the QUAD Leaders Summit with Prime Minister Kishida, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
		Japan	Hiroshima	Attended the 49th G7 summit.

Gallery

Visits by former presidents

• Ulysses S. Grant visited Hong Kong, Canton (now Guangzhou), Shanghai, and Peking where he spoke with the head of government, Prince Gong, and Li Hongzhang, Viceroy of Zhili, in 1878, during a world tour after leaving office. He subsequently visited Japan, before returning to the U.S.^[11]
• Richard Nixon visited China at the personal invitation of Mao Zedong in February 1976.^[12] He visited again in mid–1979, and had a private meeting with Deng Xiaoping in Beijing.^[13]
• Jimmy Carter travelled to China, along with Carter Center personnel, for meetings with government and other officials on several occasions: July 1997,^[14] September 2003,^[15] December 2007,^[16] and January 2009.^[17] Additionally, Carter has visited North Korea twice: in June 1994 he meet with Kim Il Sung in Pyongyang to persuade Kim to negotiate with the Clinton Administration over its nuclear program;^[18] and, in August 2010 he met with Kim Jong-il in Pyongyang to secure the release of Aijalon Mahli Gomes, an American teacher who was imprisoned in North Korea for entering that country without a travel visa. Carter returned to the United States with Gomes.^[19]
• Bill Clinton travelled to North Korea in August 2009 to secure the release of two American journalists, Euna Lee and Laura Ling, who were imprisoned for illegally entering North Korea. He met with Kim Jong-il in Pyongyang, and returned to the United States with the journalists.^[20]

See also

• Foreign policy of the United States
• United States–South Korea free trade agreement
• Security Treaty Between the United States and Japan
• One-China policy

Notes and References

1. https://history.state.gov/departmenthistory/travels/president/eisenhower-dwight-d Travels of President Dwight D. Eisenhower
2. https://history.state.gov/departmenthistory/travels/president/johnson-lyndon-b Travels of President Lyndon B. Johnson
3. Web site: Travels of President Richard M. Nixon. U.S. Department of State Office of the Historian.
4. Web site: Travels of President Jimmy Carter. U.S. Department of State Office of the Historian.
5. Web site: Travels of President Ronald Reagan. U.S. Department of State Office of the Historian.
6. Web site: Travels of President George H. W. Bush. U.S. Department of State Office of the Historian.
7. Web site: Travels of President William J. Clinton. U.S. Department of State Office of the Historian.
8. Web site: Travels of President George W. Bush. U.S. Department of State Office of the Historian.
9. Web site: Travels of President Barack Obama. U.S. Department of State Office of the Historian.
10. Web site: The President's Trip to China, Burma and Australia. November 2014. White House Office. https://web.archive.org/web/20151108004027/https://www.whitehouse.gov/issues/foreign-policy/asia-trip-2014. 2015-11-08. dead. 2016-04-17.
11. Book: Brands, H. W.. H. W. Brands. The Man Who Saved the Union: Ulysses S. Grant in War and Peace. Doubleday. 2012. 591–592. 978-0385532419.
12. Book: Black, Conrad. 2007. Richard M. Nixon: A Life in Full. 1005. Public Affairs Books. New York. 978-1-58648-519-1. registration.
13. Book: Ambrose, Stephen E.. 1991. Nixon: Ruin and Recovery 1973–1990. 524–525. Simon & Schuster. New York. 978-0-671-69188-2.
14. Web site: Visit to China. The Carter Center. Atlanta, Georgia. cartercenter.org. February 18, 2016.
15. Web site: President Carter's Japan and China Trip Report. The Carter Center. Atlanta, Georgia. cartercenter.org. February 18, 2016.
16. Web site: Trip Report by Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter to China, Dec. 2-8, 2007. The Carter Center. Atlanta, Georgia. cartercenter.org. February 18, 2016.
17. Web site: China Trip Report by Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter: Jan. 10-16, 2009. The Carter Center. Atlanta, Georgia. cartercenter.org. February 18, 2016.
18. Web site: Blakemore. Erin. Bill Clinton Once Struck a Nuclear Deal With North Korea. history.com. September 1, 2018. A&E Television Networks. July 3, 2019.
19. News: North Korea releases US prisoner after talks with Jimmy Carter. McCurry. Justin. August 27, 2010. The Guardian. July 3, 2019.
20. News: . The story behind Clinton's trip to North Korea. August 5, 2009. CNN. July 3, 2019.