President Donald Trump is exploring another summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un as early as this fall, betting that their personal relationship could reopen nuclear diplomacy after years of limited engagement.
By yourNEWS Media Newsroom
President Donald Trump is urging aides to explore another face-to-face meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, potentially setting up a return to the personal diplomacy that became a defining feature of U.S.-North Korea relations during Trump’s first term.
Trump has privately discussed the possibility of meeting Kim during an upcoming trip to Asia, U.S. officials told The Wall Street Journal.
November is among the possibilities under consideration, when international leaders are expected to attend the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Shenzhen, China.
No formal summit preparations have begun.
A White House official nevertheless indicated that Trump remains open to meeting Kim when the circumstances are appropriate.
The potential encounter would come at a substantially different moment from the leaders’ previous meetings. North Korea has continued developing its nuclear arsenal and ballistic missile capabilities while also drawing closer to Russia and China.
U.S. intelligence assessments this year concluded that Pyongyang remains committed to expanding both its missile forces and nuclear warhead stockpile.
Trump appears to believe that his relationship with Kim could provide a way back into negotiations despite those developments.
The president said Monday that Kim had responded to his latest outreach, though he did not disclose what the North Korean leader said or how the communication occurred.
Trump also recently directed the Pentagon to substantially scale back joint military exercises with South Korea, pointing both to the expense of the drills and to his relationship with Kim.
South Korean officials said Wednesday that the exercises were subsequently shortened.
Trump has repeatedly emphasized the personal rapport he developed with the North Korean leader.
“Kim Jong Un has always treated me with great respect,” Trump said Monday, adding: “I understand him. He understands me.”
The possibility of another summit would revive a diplomatic approach that produced unprecedented direct contact between the leaders but ultimately failed to reach a comprehensive agreement over North Korea’s nuclear program.
Trump became the first sitting U.S. president to meet a North Korean leader when he and Kim held a summit in Singapore in 2018.
The two met again in Hanoi in 2019.
That meeting ended without an agreement after Trump walked away rather than accept terms he concluded did not require sufficient dismantlement of North Korea’s nuclear capabilities.
The diplomatic channel subsequently faded, particularly during former President Joe Biden’s administration.
North Korea, meanwhile, continued expanding the weapons programs that Washington had hoped negotiations would constrain.
That leaves any renewed talks confronting a more difficult security landscape than the one Trump faced during his first series of meetings with Kim.
North Korea now possesses greater nuclear and ballistic missile capabilities, while its relationships with Moscow and Beijing have strengthened.
Critics of summit diplomacy have questioned whether Trump’s personal relationship with Kim can persuade Pyongyang to relinquish weapons that the North Korean government has continued building since the collapse of the Hanoi negotiations.
Trump, however, has continued to signal confidence in direct engagement.
A new meeting would once again place the president personally at the center of efforts to address one of Washington’s longest-running national security challenges and test whether the relationship established during his first term can produce diplomatic progress under changed circumstances.
For now, the proposal remains exploratory rather than a scheduled summit.
But with Trump preparing for another trip to Asia and publicly discussing renewed communication with Kim, the administration is considering whether the two leaders could meet again before the end of the year.
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