Donald Trump has signaled interest in meeting North Korea’s Kim Jong Un once again, telling reporters that another encounter “sometime this year” is possible. The remark came during his first White House meeting with South Korea’s new president, Lee Jae Myung — a session that began awkwardly but later turned into a display of mutual praise.
Trump, who built a reputation in his first term for his unusual diplomacy with Kim, recalled his personal rapport with the North Korean leader, even suggesting he knew him almost better than anyone else besides Kim’s sister. While hailing that relationship as “very good,” he admitted no breakthrough had been reached on Pyongyang’s nuclear program, which has only expanded since.
Lee, a progressive leader who rose to power after the impeachment of his conservative predecessor, leaned heavily into flattery during his Oval Office debut. He described Trump as a “maker of peace” and went so far as to joke about a future Trump Tower and golf course in Pyongyang. Later, in a Washington policy forum, Lee warned that the North’s arsenal was growing fast — possibly 10 to 20 new nuclear weapons a year — even as he touted his own gestures of conciliation, such as halting anti-Kim propaganda broadcasts at the border.
The meeting followed Trump’s social media jab earlier in the day, when he accused Seoul of undergoing a “purge or revolution” after raids tied to political allies of the ousted former president. Hours later, he dismissed his own warning as a “misunderstanding.”
Beyond North Korea, Trump pressed South Korea on business and security. Korean Air quickly announced a plan to purchase over 100 Boeing jets, a move aligning with Trump’s push for allies to buy American. He also floated the idea of Washington taking ownership — not just leasing — the land where U.S. forces are stationed, a proposal likely to inflame debate back in Seoul.
In a striking aside, Trump waded into the emotionally charged issue of “comfort women” abused under Japan’s colonial rule. While South Korea’s left has often clashed with Tokyo on this legacy, Lee had just made a symbolic stop in Japan before his U.S. trip, earning Trump’s praise for the gesture.
Trump’s musings about seeing Kim again carry echoes of their earlier summits, which once cooled tensions but never produced lasting agreements. With Pyongyang now deepening ties to Moscow and showing no sign of abandoning its nuclear ambitions, any revival of “Trump-Kim diplomacy” would unfold in a far more volatile geopolitical climate.
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