"We're going to do a visit, president's going to do a visit to Japan, and then move to Korea for the APEC conference, where the leaders as of right now will meet," Bessent said at a Washington event hosted by cable network CNBC.

Bessent gave no specific dates for the trip to the island nation but said it would come prior to APEC, which begins on October 31. The US president is also to attend the Association of Southeast Asian Nations summit scheduled for October 26-28 in Kuala Lumpur, where he will observe the ceremonial signing of a peace agreement between Thailand and Cambodia after deadly cross-border clashes. Trump heads to Asia at a time of increased trade tensions, particularly with China, the world's largest economy after the United States. Amid a Washington-Beijing tariff war this year, tit-for-tat duties reached triple-digit levels at one point, snarling supply chains. While both sides subsequently de-escalated, China last week announced a curb on rare earth exports, a move that prompted Trump to threaten an additional 100-percent tariff on goods from China starting November 1. (Bssnews)