President Donald Trump says he plans to sit down with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un later this year, setting the stage for what would be the two men’s first face-to-face meeting since Trump returned to office for a second term.
In remarks that stood out for their unusual specificity, Trump also asserted that North Korea possesses 57 “very powerful” nuclear weapons — a rare public estimate from a sitting US president about Kim’s atomic stockpile.
“Yeah, I will be,” Mr Trump told reporters while touring a new helipad he is building at the White House, responding to a question about whether he intended to meet Kim later in 2026.
He did not provide further particulars, though the Wall Street Journal reported that Trump is considering a meeting timed with a trip to China for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in November.
Trump’s openness to renewed diplomacy with Kim comes as he wages a war with Iran that he has justified as necessary to stop Tehran from obtaining a nuclear weapon — a contrast he addressed directly.
“He has 57 very powerful nuclear weapons. Should have never allowed it to happen … If I were president, I wouldn’t have allowed it,” Mr Trump said, referring to the North Korean leader.
“But he’s got them. I get along with him very well. I can’t let Iran have a nuclear weapon. And I know Kim Jong Un very well, and he’s going to be fine.”
The comments follow Trump’s order two days earlier for the United States to reduce what he called “inappropriate and hostile” military drills with South Korea.
He pointed to his “good relationship” with Mr Kim as part of the rationale for that shift.
During his first term, Trump met Kim on three occasions and later said the pair had “fell in love” after exchanging “beautiful letters.” Despite the earlier summitry, the two leaders have not met during Trump’s second term.
In recent days, Trump has increasingly suggested that some form of contact with Kim may be under way, though he declined on Wednesday to confirm reports that they were exchanging letters.
Kim Jong Un’s influential sister said today she was “unaware” of any reported communication between her brother and Donald Trump, while maintaining that relations between the two remained “excellent.”
The United States stations about 28,500 troops in South Korea to bolster the country’s defences, a legacy of the 1950-53 Korean War, which ended with an armistice rather than a peace treaty.
Trump has repeatedly taken aim at long-standing US alliances, at times questioning Washington’s security commitments in East Asia — remarks that have unsettled partners across the region.
