President Donald Trump said on Monday that he could potentially meet with North Korean Supreme Leader Kim Jong Un during his trip to Asia next month.
The two leaders last met in 2019 during Trump’s first term in office.
“I may,” the president told reporters on Monday.
“That would be exciting, won’t it? But I get along with him,” he added.
The highly-isolated Asian nation has roughly 50 nukes, according to the Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation. The country also does sporadic ballistic tests, including on Monday, Yonhap News Agency reported.
Trump: I may meet with Kim Jong Un. That would be exciting. I get along with him. https://t.co/Rz3IdkvUbP
— Clash Report (@clashreport) October 12, 2026
The comments come after the president met with Dennis Rodman late last month, according to the New York Post. Rodman and Kim Jong Un were friends, but Washington Post Intelligence writer Josh Rogin suggested that the friendship presumably ended after a drunken mishap involving Rodman.
Kim Jong Un broke off his friendship with Rodman after the last visit where Rodman allegedly got super drunk and allegedly defacated on the hotel room floor. He can’t help Trump with North Korean diplomacy anymore.
— Josh Rogin (@joshrogin) September 30, 2026
Regardless, the meeting is also in the backdrop of tensions between the United States and South Korea, as the South Korean government pushed back on a Trump administration announcement about an Alaska LNG pipeline investment. When the president was asked by reporters earlier this month, he said he will “just charge them more” if they do not ultimately sign on.
“They said they didn't sign off? Tell them if they don't sign shortly, I'm gonna double it,” he said.
Reporter: "South Korea says they have not signed off on this Alaska pipeline..." Trump: "That's okay with me, I'll just charge them more...They said they didn't sign off? Tell them if they don't sign shortly, I'm gonna double it." https://t.co/IVPlyv1Q3j
— The Post Millennial (@TPostMillennial) October 2, 2026
In August, the president also asked the United States military to do fewer military exercises with South Korean forces “based on [his] very good relationship with Kim Jong Un, of North Korea.”
“These exercises are not only costly, with much of these costs paid for by the United States of America (as usual!), but send a signal that is totally inappropriate and hostile, to a Country that, as long as Donald J. Trump has been President, has been unthreatening and respectful,” he wrote at the time.
In the same Truth Social post, he expressed frustration with South Korean leadership for apparently saying “No thanks!” when asked if “if they would like to join us in the Denuclearization of the Islamic Republic of Iran.”
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