South Korea to host high-stakes APEC amid tariff tensions

South Korea's historic city of Gyeongju is preparing to host APEC leaders from October 31 to November 1, with global attention fixed on whether U.S. President Donald Trump and China's Xi Jinping will meet on the sidelines amid a fresh tariff threat and rare earths spat. John Delury, a Seoul-based scholar of U.S.–China relations and Korean Peninsula affairs, said allies are navigating a difficult balance as the world's two largest economies spar.