Trump Open to Meeting With Kim Jong Un During Asia Trip

President Donald Trump has said he would be willing to meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un during his trip to Asia, should Pyongyang take the initiative to reach out.

“I’d be open to it, 100 percent. I got along very well with him, Kim Jong Un,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One en route to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

“I would if he would contact. They have a lot of nuclear weapons but not a lot of telephone service. I’m open to it.”

The president also responded to a question about recognizing North Korea as a nuclear power.

Kim said in a speech last month that he was open to talks with the United States, noting that he still had “a good memory” of Trump, but only if his country were not required to give up its nuclear arsenal.

“I think they are sort of a nuclear power,” Trump said.

“I know how many weapons they have. I know everything about them, and I have a very good relationship with Kim Jung Un. When you say they have to be recognized as a nuclear power, well, they’ve got a lot of nuclear weapons, I’ll say that.”

Despite longstanding tensions over Pyongyang’s nuclear ambitions, Trump and Kim have both described their personal relationship as positive.

The two leaders met three times during Trump’s first term, including two high-profile summit talks in Singapore in June 2018 and in Hanoi, Vietnam, in February 2019.

Their most recent meeting took place at the demilitarized zone separating the two Koreas in June 2019, when Trump made history as the first sitting U.S. president to step into North Korea. He crossed briefly into northern territory to shake hands with Kim.

The South Korean government has said it would welcome renewed nuclear talks between North Korea and the United States, while maintaining that Seoul’s goal of denuclearizing the Korean Peninsula remains unchanged despite Pyongyang’s calls for Washington to abandon that objective.

“We will support North Korea–U.S. dialogue,” an official from South Korea’s presidential office said in September, according to Yonhap News Agency.

“We will continue efforts to establish peace on the Korean Peninsula free of nuclear weapons.”

Trump’s Asia Tour

Trump departed Washington on Oct. 24 for Malaysia, where he will attend the Association of Southeast Asian Nations summit. The trip, which also includes stops in Japan and South Korea, is his first visit to the region since returning to the White House in January.

He is expected to meet with Japan’s newly elected prime minister, Sanae Takaichi, and later next week with Chinese leader Xi Jinping.

Trump, who congratulated Takaichi on her election victory earlier this month, spoke warmly about her before departing Washington.

“I hear great things about her. I think she’s going to be great. She’s a great friend of Mr. [Shinzo] Abe, who was a great man,” he told reporters on Oct. 24.

“Prime Minister Abe was a great friend of mine, who is just a fantastic person. He liked her a lot. She liked him a lot. So that’s a good sign.”

Asked about his upcoming meeting with Xi, Trump said the two leaders had “a lot of things” to discuss, including American farmers who have been affected by a Chinese freeze on U.S. agricultural imports.

Trump told reporters that he will bail out farmers if he does not reach a deal with China.

“We’re going to subsidize them, and we’ll give them some money, because it’s not their fault,” he said.