South Korea’s unification minister said on Friday, October 24th, he believed there was a “considerable” chance that U.S. President Donald Trump will meet North Korean leader Kim Jong Un during a visit to the peninsula next week.
Trump is expected in South Korea on Wednesday, October 29th, for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Forum. U.S. media have reported officials from his administration have privately discussed setting up a meeting between Trump and North Korean leader Kim, with whom he last held talks with in 2019.
Trump has said he hopes to meet Kim again—possibly this year. Trump’s initial outreach to the North Korean leader earlier this year never received a reply because the North Koreans would not accept the letter.
For his part, Kim also expressed an openness to sitting down with Trump during a speech before the North Korean parliament last month, according to comments carried by North Korean state media. Kim said last month he had “fond memories” of Trump and was open to talks if the United States dropped its “delusional” demand that Pyongyang give up its nuclear weapons.
North Korea appears “to be paying attention to the United States, and various signs. .. suggest a considerable possibility of a meeting,” unification minister Chung Dong-young told reporters. Seoul on October 24th urged the two leaders not to let the chance “slip away.”
The duo’s last and impromptu meeting at Panmunjom was hastily arranged after Trump extended an invitation to Kim on Twitter a day prior. That event saw the two leaders shake hands over the concrete slabs dividing North and South before Trump walked a few paces into Pyongyang’s territory—becoming the first U.S. president ever to set foot on North Korean soil.
Talks eventually collapsed over just how much of its nuclear arsenal the North was willing to give up and what Pyongyang would get in return.
