President Donald Trump says he expects to meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un later this year, signaling a possible revival of the high-profile diplomatic engagement that defined a major part of Trump’s first-term foreign policy.
Trump spoke positively about his relationship with Kim while discussing the possibility of renewed direct negotiations with Pyongyang. The president suggested that communication between the two leaders could resume and expressed confidence that a personal relationship could once again help create an opening for diplomacy.
“I get along with him very well,” Trump said, adding that he believes Kim “is going to be fine” as long as the United States has what Trump described as a “smart president” dealing with North Korea.
A renewed meeting would mark a significant development in U.S.-North Korea relations, particularly as Pyongyang continues to maintain a nuclear weapons program and expand its military capabilities.
Trump also criticized previous U.S. administrations for allowing North Korea to develop its nuclear arsenal in the first place. He argued that the situation should have been prevented before Pyongyang accumulated the weapons and capabilities it possesses today.
Trump’s comments reflect his longstanding belief that direct engagement with Kim can accomplish more than traditional diplomatic pressure alone. During his first presidency, Trump became the first sitting U.S. president to meet a North Korean leader, holding three high-profile encounters with Kim in 2018 and 2019.
Those meetings temporarily lowered tensions after a period of escalating threats between Washington and Pyongyang. Trump and Kim exchanged personal letters and discussed the possibility of denuclearization, sanctions relief and a broader transformation of relations between the two countries.
However, the diplomacy ultimately failed to produce a comprehensive agreement. The 2019 summit in Hanoi ended without a deal after the two sides remained divided over the scope of North Korea’s nuclear concessions and the sanctions relief Washington was prepared to provide.
Since then, North Korea has continued strengthening its weapons capabilities while repeatedly rejecting demands that it surrender its nuclear arsenal.
A potential Trump-Kim meeting would therefore face a dramatically different strategic environment from the one that existed during Trump’s first term. North Korea now possesses a more developed nuclear and missile program, while its relationships with countries such as Russia and China have also become increasingly important to its foreign policy.
For Trump, however, the possibility of renewed diplomacy appears to remain firmly on the table.
His comments suggest that personal diplomacy could once again become a central component of the administration’s strategy toward Pyongyang. Whether another summit can produce concrete progress on North Korea’s nuclear program remains uncertain.
For now, Trump is signaling that he believes dialogue is possible—and that a direct conversation with Kim Jong Un could be coming later this year.
