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Teresa Elena Frontado

US President Donald Trump said on Wednesday that he planned to meet North Korean leader Kim Jong-un later this year, despite Pyongyang denying that the two leaders were in direct communication.
“Yeah, I will be,” Trump told reporters when asked whether he expected to meet Kim before the end of 2026.
Trump, speaking during a tour of a new helipad under construction at the White House, provided no details about where or when a meeting might take place.
The Wall Street Journal has reported that Trump is considering meeting Kim when he travels to Shenzhen for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in November.
Any encounter would be the first between the two leaders since Trump returned to the White House and would represent his latest attempt to revive the personal diplomacy that defined his approach to North Korea during his first term.
Trump also offered an unusually specific public estimate of Pyongyang’s nuclear arsenal, saying Kim possessed 57 “very powerful” nuclear weapons.


“They should have never allowed it,” Trump said. “If I were president, I wouldn’t have allowed it. But he’s got them.”
Estimates of North Korea’s nuclear stockpile vary. The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute said in June that Pyongyang may have assembled about 60 nuclear warheads and possessed enough fissile material to produce at least 30 more.
Trump defended his willingness to engage with a nuclear-armed North Korea even as his administration has justified the war with Iran as necessary to prevent Tehran from acquiring a nuclear weapon.
“I can’t let Iran have a nuclear weapon,” Trump said. “And I know Kim Jong-un very well, and he’s going to be fine as long as we have a smart president.”
“The fact that I get along with him – that’s a good thing, not a bad thing,” he added.
Trump’s remarks followed his announcement on Sunday that he had ordered the Pentagon to reduce joint military exercises with South Korea, which he described as sending a “totally inappropriate and hostile” message to Pyongyang.
The US president cited both his relationship with Kim and what he described as South Korea’s inadequate support for the US war with Iran in explaining the decision.
Pyongyang, however, dismissed the move and denied reports of renewed direct communication between Trump and Kim.
Kim Yo-jong, the North Korean leader’s influential sister, said on Wednesday that she was “unaware” of any recent exchanges between the two men.
“The relationship between the two leaders remains excellent,” she said in a statement carried by the official Korean Central News Agency. “However, the US’ hostile policies toward the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea haven’t changed.”
She also said North Korea had little interest in Trump’s decision to scale back the exercises, arguing that reducing their size or duration would not alter what Pyongyang regarded as their provocative nature.
“If the US side is trying to tout its decision as some kind of an ‘act of goodwill’, they will not get the response that they want,” Kim Yo-jong said.




Her statement came after Trump said on Monday that the North Korean leader had responded to requests for the two men to speak.
Asked on Wednesday whether they had exchanged letters, Trump declined to answer directly, reiterating only that they got along “very well”.
Trump held three meetings with Kim during his first term, beginning with a summit in Singapore in June 2018.
The two met again in Hanoi in February 2019, but that summit ended without an agreement after they failed to bridge differences over sanctions relief and North Korea’s nuclear programme.
They met for a third time in June 2019 at the demilitarised zone separating North and South Korea, where Trump became the first sitting US president to step onto North Korean soil.
The meetings marked a dramatic reversal after months of threats and personal insults, during which Kim described Trump as a “mentally deranged US dotard” and Trump mocked the North Korean leader as “Little Rocket Man”.
Trump later said the two men had “fallen in love” through an exchange of what he called “beautiful letters”.
Their personal diplomacy nevertheless failed to produce a lasting agreement to curb North Korea’s nuclear programme, which has continued to expand in the years since their last meeting.


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United States

Trump says he plans to meet Kim Jong-un this year, citing good relationship

US President Donald Trump (left) and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un meet at the demilitarised zone in June 2019, the third of their three face-to-face meetings during Trump’s first term. Photo: Getty Images/TNS

US, South Korea slash joint military drills by half as Trump eyes Kim summit

US Army’s soldiers conduct a training exercise on a river in Yeoncheon, South Korea, on Tuesday. Photo: AP

US Forces Korea commander General Xavier Brunson leaves the Defence Ministry in Seoul after discussing cutbacks to the Ulchi exercise on Tuesday. Photo: Yonhap/AP

South Korean President Lee Jae Myung (second right) speaks during a cabinet meeting at the presidential office in Seoul on Tuesday. Photo: Yonhap/AP

Trump’s decision to scale back South Korea drills unsettles Asian allies: ‘makes no sense’

US Army armoured vehicles gather to cross a river at a training field in Yeoncheon, South Korea, on Monday. Photo: AP

Trump posts a meme of Kim Jong-un on social media on Monday. Photo: Truth Social/realDonaldTrump

US soldiers walk beside military vehicles at Camp Humphreys in Pyeongtaek on Monday. Photo: Yonhap/AFP

US-South Korea joint military exercises start after Trump orders Pentagon to scale back

US President Donald Trump at Morristown Municipal Airport in New Jersey on Sunday. Photo: Getty Images via AFP

Colonel Jang Do-young, public affairs director of South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Colonel Ryan Donald, public affairs director of the United States Forces Korea, brief the press about the Ulchi Freedom Shield exercise on August 10. Photo: Reuters 

Part of an unidentified missile which Ukrainian authorities believe to be made in North Korea and was used in a strike in Kharkiv in January 2024. Photo: Reuters

South Korea accelerates military self-reliance over Trump’s ‘unpredictability’

South Korean President Lee Jae Myung speaks during a cabinet meeting at the presidential office in Seoul on Tuesday, Photo: Yonhap/AP

Jang Do-young, public affairs director of South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Ryan Donald, public affairs director of the United Nations Command, attend a press briefing in Seoul on the 2026 Ulchi drills. Photo: Reuters

North Korea’s leader Kim Jong-un and US President Donald Trump meet on the south side of the Military Demarcation Line in the Joint Security Area of Panmunjom on June 30, 2019. Photo: AFP

A US Army vehicle crosses a bridge in Yeoju on the Namhan River during the 2025 Ulchi military drill. Photo: AP

A TV screen at Seoul Station shows a news report that North Korea fired a ballistic missile towards the East Sea last week. Photo: EPA

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Asia

East Asia

US president says North Korea has 57 ‘very powerful’ nuclear weapons, as Pyongyang denies direct communication between the two leaders


US president says North Korea has 57 ‘very powerful’ nuclear weapons, as Pyongyang denies direct communication between the two leaders.


Trump says he plans to meet Kim Jong-un this year, citing good relationship

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}US president says North Korea has 57 ‘very powerful’ nuclear weapons, as Pyongyang denies direct communication between the two leaders

US president says North Korea has 57 ‘very powerful’ nuclear weapons, as Pyongyang denies direct communication between the two leaders