US President Donald Trump is seeking to meet with North Korea's Kim Jong-un, with US officials saying he is pushing aides for a meeting as soon as November, according to the Wall Street Journal. The move comes as Trump attempts to revive a diplomatic goal from his first term to convince Kim to abandon North Korea's nuclear weapons program.
Potential Asia trip
According to reports, Trump has privately discussed arranging an in-person discussion with Kim during his next trip to Asia, which could take place in November when world leaders gather at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Shenzhen, China.
The reports of Trump's interest in meeting Kim come after Trump said he had decided to "substantially reduce" America's joint military exercises with South Korea, citing his "very good relationship" with Kim.
Past tensions and summits
About a decade ago, any kind of meeting seemed improbable when Trump in 2017 declared North Korea would be "met with fire," while also referring to the nation's leader as "little rocket man." The North Korean leader called Trump a "mentally deranged US dotard" and threatened to "tam him with fire."
When Kim said he was ready to strike America after completing a missile test, Trump told the UN General Assembly in September 2017 that he would "totally destroy" North Korea and "rocket man is on a suicide mission." North Korea's foreign minister, Ri Yong-ho, claimed it was a declaration of war, but it started a chain of events that would lead to a surprise sit-down between the two.
Three previous meetings
The two leaders have met in person three times, with all encounters occurring during Trump's first presidential term. They first met in Singapore in 2018, and the interaction resulted in a joint statement on denuclearization. Their second meeting was in Vietnam in 2019, which ended abruptly without an agreement after differences over sanctions relief and nuclear disarmament.
They met later in 2019 at a Korean Demilitarized Zone, making Trump the first sitting American president to step across the military demarcation line into North Korean territory.
