US President Donald Trump said Wednesday that he plans to meet North Korean leader Kim Jong Un later this year, signaling a possible revival of high-level diplomacy between Washington and Pyongyang.
Asked whether he expected to meet Kim later this year, Trump replied, “Yeah, I will be.” His comments come after he said he had received a response from Kim following efforts by his administration to re-establish contact.
The potential meeting could mark a major development in US-North Korea relations, particularly as tensions over Pyongyang’s nuclear programme and military cooperation between Washington and Seoul remain significant.
Trump Says North Korea Has 57 Nuclear Weapons
Trump also claimed that North Korea possesses 57 “very powerful” nuclear weapons, an unusually specific figure that has not been publicly established by independent assessments cited in the report.
North Korea is widely believed to possess a growing nuclear arsenal, but estimates of the size of its stockpile vary. Trump has increasingly referred to North Korea as a nuclear power, although Washington continues to officially support the goal of denuclearising the Korean Peninsula.
Trump said North Korea should never have been allowed to develop such weapons, adding that he believed the situation would have been different had he been president earlier.
Trump Orders Changes to US-South Korea Military Exercises
Trump’s comments followed his decision to order Pentagon officials to cut short joint military exercises with South Korea. He argued that the drills sent a message to Pyongyang that was “totally inappropriate and hostile.”
The move comes as Trump seeks to create conditions for renewed engagement with Kim Jong Un. North Korea has long condemned joint US-South Korean military exercises, describing them as preparations for an invasion.
Kim’s powerful sister, Kim Yo Jong, recently said she was unaware of any recent communication between the two countries’ leaders. However, she also described the relationship between Trump and Kim as “truly great” while criticizing Washington’s continued military cooperation with Seoul.
Trump Seeks to Revive Previous Diplomacy
Trump and Kim held an unprecedented series of summits in 2018 and 2019, making history as the first sitting US president and North Korean leader to meet face-to-face.
However, the diplomatic process eventually collapsed over disagreements about sanctions relief and Washington’s demand that North Korea abandon its nuclear weapons programme.
Trump has since repeatedly highlighted his personal relationship with Kim and has indicated that he wants to revive diplomacy during his second presidential term.
Reports have suggested that US officials are exploring the possibility of arranging an in-person meeting as early as autumn, although North Korea has not publicly confirmed plans for a new summit.
The latest comments suggest Trump is once again relying on direct engagement with Kim as a potential route toward reducing tensions on the Korean Peninsula. Whether Pyongyang is prepared to return to negotiations, however, remains uncertain.
With North Korea continuing to maintain its nuclear capabilities and Washington still officially supporting denuclearisation, any future Trump-Kim meeting could face difficult questions over nuclear weapons, sanctions, military exercises and regional security.
