Trump says he plans to meet North Korea’s Kim Jong Un later this year
US President Donald Trump said he expects to meet North Korean leader Kim Jong Un later this year and said North Korea has 57 nuclear weapons.
Washington, United States. US President Donald Trump said on Wednesday that he plans to meet North Korean leader Kim Jong Un later this year, as he seeks to revive diplomatic engagement with Pyongyang.
Meeting plans and military exercises
Trump said he had ordered Pentagon officials to cut short joint military exercises with South Korea, saying the drills sent a “totally inappropriate and hostile” message to North Korea, which he described as “unthreatening and respectful.”
Asked whether he expected to meet Kim later this year, Trump said: “Yeah, I will be.”
Trump said on Monday that he had received a response from Kim following his efforts to reengage. The Wall Street Journal reported that he had urged aides to arrange an in-person meeting with Kim as early as this autumn.
North Korean response
North Korea’s mission to the United Nations in New York did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Trump’s latest remarks.
The comments came shortly after Kim’s sister, Kim Yo Jong, said she was unaware of any recent communications between the leaders of the two countries.
Kim Yo Jong said the relationship between the US and North Korean leaders was “truly great,” but added that Washington was continuing military drills with Seoul and threatening Pyongyang’s national security.
Nuclear weapons
Trump said Kim had 57 “very powerful” nuclear weapons during a tour of a helipad being constructed on the White House’s South Lawn.
“The fact that I get along with him – that’s a good thing, not a bad thing. He has 57 very powerful nuclear weapons,” Trump said. “They should have never allowed it. If I were president, I wouldn’t have allowed it. But he’s got them.”
Trump held an unprecedented series of summits with Kim in 2018 and 2019, but the diplomatic efforts collapsed over US demands for North Korea to abandon its nuclear weapons.
Trump has repeatedly referred to North Korea as a “nuclear power,” although his administration has continued to call for its denuclearization and does not formally recognise it as a nuclear-weapon state.
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