Donald Trump, the president of the United States, has stated that he anticipates seeing Kim Jong Un, the leader of North Korea, later this year. “Yeah, I will be,” Trump said while addressing media on the South Lawn. When asked about the possible meeting, I said, “I’ll be doing this too.”
He highlighted his close friendship with Kim and said that their chemistry was good for international relations. “I get along with him right,” Trump said. You know what, it’s a good thing rather than a bad thing that I get along with him.
Trump emphasized North Korea’s nuclear capabilities during the conversation, asserting that Kim had fifty-seven potent nuclear weapons. “Such a stockpile should never have been allowed to develop,” he said. “If I were president, I wouldn’t have allowed it,” Trump continued. However, he has them. He and I get along great. Iran cannot be allowed to possess nuclear weapons.
He expressed optimism about the future of the region under US leadership and justified his strategy toward North Korea. “I know Kim Jong Un very well,” he declared. And he will be alright. He will be alright as long as our president is intelligent. A foolish president is unlikely to be very successful.
Trump had previously stated that Kim Jong Un had always shown him “great respect.” He clarified that they had met several times and had a good understanding of one another. Trump said, “He didn’t like Biden, he didn’t like Obama, he didn’t like anybody, but I get along with him very well,” in contrast to Kim’s alleged distaste for former US presidents. Right now, I’m doing the exact opposite—making things safer.
This confirmation follows Trump’s directive to Secretary of War Pete Hegseth to drastically cut back on joint military drills with South Korea. He condemned the drills as expensive and unsuitable, citing his friendship with Kim Jong Un.
“Based on my very good relationship with Kim Jong Un, of North Korea, I am not happy with the fact that the United States has, long ago, agreed to participate in Joint Military Exercises with South Korea,” Trump said on Truth Social, expressing his displeasure with the country’s long-standing agreement to take part in such exercises.
Should the meeting occur, it would be Trump’s first meeting with Kim Jong Un in his second term as US president. In unprecedented direct diplomacy, Trump and Kim had three in-person meetings between 2018 and 2019.
In June 2018, the two leaders met for the first time in history at the Singapore Summit, where they signed a joint declaration to achieve full denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, create new bilateral relations, and retrieve American battle remains. Trump declared the suspension of significant US-South Korea military drills after the summit, referring to them as “provocative war games.”
The second meeting took place at the Hanoi Summit in Vietnam in February 2019. Negotiations collapsed over disagreements on sanctions relief and nuclear dismantlement. North Korea offered to decommission the Yongbyon nuclear facility in exchange for major sanctions relief, but the US insisted on broader denuclearisation across undisclosed sites, leading to an early end without agreement.
In June 2019, they met for the third time at the Korean Demilitarized Zone in Panmunjom. Trump became the first US president to enter North Korean territory while in office.
Trump and Kim agreed to resume working-level nuclear talks during a 50-minute private meeting inside the Freedom House, which was briefly attended by South Korean President Moon Jae-in.
If the meeting goes ahead, it would maintain Trump’s distinctive strategy for dealing with North Korea, which combines strategic choices like reducing military drills with South Korea with a personal relationship. It demonstrates his conviction that direct communication with Kim Jong Un may promote stability on the Korean Peninsula.
