Trump defends North Korea ties
President Trump denied claims that he is prioritizing North Korea’s interests over regional allies.
WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump said he plans to meet with Kim Jong Un of North Korea later this year as the president signaled plans to revive his first-term push for the North Korean leader to abandon his country’s nuclear weapons program.
“Yeah, I will be,” Trump told reporters on Aug. 19 when asked whether he expects to meet Kim this year, which would be Trump’s first meeting with the North Korean leader of his second term.
Trump in recent days has touted his close relationship with Kim and directed the Pentagon to scale back joint military exercises with South Korea, a U.S. ally and North Korean adversary that Trump has pressed to pay more for its defense.
“The fact that I get along with him ‒ that’s a good thing, not a bad thing,” Trump said of Kim. “He has 57 very powerful nuclear weapons. Should have never allowed it to happen. If I was president, I wouldn’t have allowed it to happen. But he’s got them.”
The Wall Street Journal reported Trump has privately discussed a face-to-face meeting with Kim at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation in Shenzhen, China, set for Nov. 18 and 19.
Trump met three times with Kim during his first term ‒ each, controversially, without setting preconditions ‒ including once in 2019 at the Korean demilitarized zone in which Trump briefly stepped across the military demarcation line into North Korea.
Trump’s diplomatic efforts, however, failed to result in a deal for Kim to ditch his country’s arsenal of nuclear weapons in exchange for reductions of economic sanctions.
At Trump’s direction, the Pentagon and South Korea on Aug. 18 said it will cut annual joint military drills from 11 to five days and scale back some field training. Scaling back the joint military exercises was among North Korea’s demands during past nuclear talks with the Trump.
Experts have provided different estimates over the years on how many nuclear weapons North Korea has in its possession. In June, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute estimated North Korea has “possibly assembled around 60 warheads” and “possesses enough fissile material to produce at least 30 more.”
Trump’s latest overtures to Kim come as the president has struggled to achieve his goal for Iran to abandon its nuclear weapon program during the nearly six-month U.S. war in Iran.
“We can’t let Iran have a nuclear weapon,” Trump said on Aug. 19 before pivoting to North Korea. “I know Kim Jong Un very well, and he’s going to be fine. As long as we have a smart president, he’s going to be fine. If we have a dumb president, then he’s probably not going to be so fine.”
Contributing: Reuters and Francesca Chambers of USA TODAY
Reach Joey Garrison on X @joeygarrison.