Trump Says He ‘Would Love to’ Meet With Kim Jong Un on Asia Trip

President Donald Trump said on Oct. 28 that he would “love to meet” with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un during his Asia trip.

Trump was in Japan on the first leg of his Asian tour when he made the comments, as he prepares to visit South Korea later this week.

“I just had a good relationship with him,” he told reporters. “I would love to see him, if he wants to, if he even gets this message. We haven’t mentioned anything, but he knows I’m going over there. If he’d like to meet, I’d love to meet him.”

When asked what he could use to bring Kim to the table, Trump responded by saying sanctions, adding, “That’s pretty big to start off with. I would say that’s about as big as you get.”

Trump has made numerous offers to meet with Kim ahead of his touching down in South Korea, with officials in Seoul offering him support. Publicly, however, there are no current plans for the two leaders to get together.

Kim previously met with Trump in 2018 and 2019 during the latter’s first term in office, before negotiations broke down over Pyongyang’s nuclear arsenal. North Korea is under heavy international sanctions over those weapons, as well as its ballistic missile program.

Trump’s words come days after Pyongyang test-fired what it said was a new hypersonic ballistic missile.

The South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff stated that the projectiles were fired from an area near Pyongyang, North Korea, early on Oct. 22 and flew about 217 miles toward the northeast. The missiles appeared to land inland, a military official said.

Last month, the North Korean dictator also intimated that he was open to a meeting if the United States dropped demands that he relinquish his nuclear weapons.

“If the United States, freeing itself from its absurd pursuit of [others’] denuclearization and recognizing the reality, wants genuine peaceful coexistence with us, there is no reason for us not to come face to face with it,” he said in a speech to the People’s Assembly.

“Personally, I still have a good memory of the current U.S. President Trump.”

However, he rejected the notion of any talks between Pyongyang and Seoul.

“Availing myself of this opportunity, I am going to make our stand towards the relations with the ROK [Republic of Korea, or South Korea] clearer,” Kim said.

“We have no reason to sit together with it and will do nothing together with it. I make clear that we will not deal with it at all.”

South Korean President Lee Jae Myung, who took power in June after months of instability in the country, has sought to improve relations with his northern neighbor.

Seoul’s Unification Minister Chung Dong-young, who handles relations with Pyongyang, said North Korea was likely to issue a statement on Trump’s offer on Tuesday or Wednesday, according to The Korea Herald.

The talk of a meeting between Trump and Kim comes against a backdrop of deepening ties between Pyongyang and Moscow, with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Kim signing a strategic partnership treaty last year that included a mutual defense pact and North Korean soldiers, artillery, ammunition, and missiles being sent to Russia to support the Kremlin’s war in Ukraine.

On Oct. 24, Kim said the countries’ military relationship will “advance non-stop” in a speech at a groundbreaking ceremony for a monument to North Korean troops who fought alongside Moscow’s forces in the Kursk region of Russia.

The Pentagon estimates North Korea has deployed between 11,000 and 12,000 troops to fight in the war in return for economic and military technology assistance from Russia.

Seoul’s intelligence agency estimated in September that about 2,000 North Korean soldiers had been killed in the fighting.

North Korea’s foreign minister met with Putin in Moscow on Oct. 27.

Reuters contributed to this report.