Trump Says He Will Meet Kim Jong Un This Year After Cutting South Korea Drills Short

Donald Trump told reporters at the White House on Wednesday, August 19, that he expects to meet Kim Jong Un before the end of 2026. It would be the first face-to-face between the two leaders since Trump's second term began.

"Yeah, I will be," Trump said when asked directly if a meeting was coming, according to multiple outlets including Fox News and the Denver Gazette. The comment came during an impromptu press availability while Trump toured a new helipad under construction on the White House's South Lawn.

Trump gave no date or location. But the Wall Street Journal reported, as cited by both the Straits Times and Channel News Asia, that Trump is eyeing a possible encounter with Kim when he travels to China in November for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit.

57 Nuclear Weapons, By Trump's Count

Trump also offered a specific number for North Korea's arsenal, telling reporters Kim has "57 very powerful nuclear weapons." That figure roughly matches prior US government and think-tank estimates putting North Korea's stockpile between 50 and 60 weapons, according to Channel News Asia. It's still unusual for a sitting president to publicly cite a specific number, since Washington does not officially recognize North Korea as a nuclear state.

Trump used the moment to take a shot at Barack Obama's handling of North Korea's nuclear program. "Should have never allowed it to happen," Trump said, according to the Epoch Times. "If I were president, I wouldn't have let it happen, but he's got them."

He declined to say whether he and Kim have exchanged letters recently. "Can't tell you that," Trump told a reporter, according to Fox News. During his first term, Trump described the two leaders as having "fallen in love" over an exchange of what he called "beautiful letters."

Drills Cut Short, Allies Uneasy

The meeting announcement lands two days after Trump ordered the Pentagon to scale back joint military exercises with South Korea, calling them "inappropriate and hostile," according to the Straits Times. The drills, originally scheduled to run through August 27, will now end August 21. The two countries agreed to conduct combined field maneuvers on a reduced scale instead.

Trump said he was irritated that South Korea declined to help with US operations around the Strait of Hormuz. "I was not happy when South Korea said they were not interested in helping us with the Hormuz Strait," Trump said, according to the Epoch Times. "I felt to do a massive war exercise, I thought that was very insulting to somebody that during my term was very well behaved."

Channel News Asia reported that the drill cutback and the sudden focus on Kim have "alarmed Asian allies" and fueled speculation Trump is chasing a foreign policy win while his war with Iran stalls. The timing of both moves has prompted that assessment, though it remains speculation rather than something Trump himself has confirmed.

A joint report from the US, South Korea and Japan, cited by the Epoch Times, expressed "serious concern" over military cooperation between North Korea and Russia, including alleged ballistic missile and arms transfers that would violate UN Security Council resolutions. The same report pointed to continued activity at North Korea's Yongbyon nuclear reactor, expanded uranium enrichment capacity, and efforts toward a nuclear-powered submarine.

Kim's Sister Responds

Kim Yo Jong, Kim Jong Un's sister and a senior North Korean official, pushed back on the idea that direct contact between the two leaders was already underway. "I know nothing about it," she said in a statement carried by North Korea's state news agency KCNA, adding sarcastically, "It must be the only matter concerning the supreme leadership's foreign policy that I am unaware of."

She didn't rule out a future meeting, however. "Our head of state holds good memories and personal feelings toward Trump," she said. "The relationship between the two leaders is excellent." She also noted that Washington's broader policy toward Pyongyang "hasn't changed." Warm personal rhetoric has not translated into any lifted sanctions or changed US posture.

Trump met Kim three times during his first term: Singapore in 2018, Hanoi in 2019, and a brief step across the demilitarized zone into North Korean territory later that year, making him the first sitting US president to do so. None of those summits produced a signed denuclearization deal.

Asked whether his goal now is denuclearization, Trump demurred. "I don't want to talk about that," he said, according to the Epoch Times. This represents a shift in emphasis from his first-term framing, when denuclearization was the stated purpose of engaging Kim at all.

Whether a fourth Trump-Kim meeting actually happens by year's end, and whether it takes place on the sidelines of the APEC summit in China as the Wall Street Journal reported, remains unconfirmed by either government. North Korea has not accepted an invitation on the record, and Kim Yo Jong's statement stopped short of confirming any meeting is being planned at all.