Donald Trump has said he would like to meet North Korean leader Kim Jong Un during his upcoming trip to Asia.
I would. If you want to put out the word, I'm open to it, the U.S. president told reporters onboard Air Force One as he departed for the region, adding that he had a great relationship with Kim.
Trump made history during his first term, becoming the first sitting U.S. president to set foot into North Korea when they last shook hands in 2019.
His trip to Malaysia and Japan will see him meet several world leaders, including China's Xi Jinping, amid trade negotiations sparked by Trump's imposition of sweeping tariffs earlier this year.
Trump has taken an atypical approach to North Korea - a secretive communist totalitarian state largely isolated on the world stage - and its attempts at creating nuclear weapons, initially taunting Kim as a 'little rocket man'.
The pair met face-to-face three times during Trump's previous tenure in the White House but failed to agree on a denuclearization program. North Korea has since conducted multiple tests of intercontinental missiles, its neighbors say.
Asked if he would recognize North Korea as a nuclear state, Trump told reporters: I think they are sort of a nuclear power... They got a lot of nuclear weapons, I'll say that.
Kim has expressed an openness to meet Trump again, provided the U.S. halts its demands for the complete denuclearization of North Korea. I still have a good memory of President Trump, Kim said in a recent speech.
South Korea's Unification Minister Chung Dong-young suggested there might be a 'considerable' chance for the two leaders to meet during Trump's visit to South Korea for the APEC forum. However, a senior U.S. official has stated that a meeting is not currently on Trump’s schedule.
Trump's first stop will be in Malaysia, where he will participate in the ASEAN summit, with plans to arrive in South Korea ahead of meeting the nation's leader, Lee Jae Myung, who previously discussed possibilities for negotiation on the Korean Peninsula.
Trump's discussions with Xi come amid a trade war, as both leaders aim to navigate tariffs that could substantially affect economic ties between the nations.
