{"id":328544,"date":"2025-10-24T07:21:19","date_gmt":"2025-10-24T07:21:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/328544\/"},"modified":"2025-10-24T07:21:19","modified_gmt":"2025-10-24T07:21:19","slug":"trumps-asia-trip-sparks-speculation-of-meeting-with-kim-jong-un","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/328544\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump’s Asia trip sparks speculation of meeting with Kim Jong Un"},"content":{"rendered":"

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) \u2014 The last time U.S. President Donald Trump visited South Korea in 2019, he made a surprise trip to the border with North Korea for an impromptu meeting<\/a> with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un to revive faltering nuclear talks<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Now, as Trump is set to make his first trip to Asia<\/a> since his return to office, speculation is rife that he may seek to meet Kim again during his stop in South Korea. If realized, it would mark the two\u2019s first summit since their last meeting at the Korean border village of Panmunjom<\/a> in June 2019, and fourth overall. <\/p>\n

Many experts say prospects for another impromptu meeting aren\u2019t bright this time but predict Trump and Kim could eventually sit down for talks again in coming months. Others dispute that, saying a quick resumption of diplomacy isn\u2019t still likely given how much has changed since 2019 \u2014 both the size of North Korea\u2019s nuclear program and its foreign policy leverage.<\/p>\n

Talks of fresh diplomacy<\/p>\n

Trump has repeatedly expressed his desire to restore diplomacy with Kim as he boasted of his relationship with the North Korean leader and called him \u201ca smart guy.\u201d Ending his silence on Trump\u2019s outreach, Kim last month said he held \u201cgood personal memories\u201d<\/a> of Trump and suggested he could return to talks if the U.S. drops \u201cits delusional obsession with denuclearization\u201d of North Korea.<\/p>\n

Both Washington and Pyongyang haven\u2019t hinted at any high-profile meeting ahead of the Oct. 31-Nov. 1 Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation<\/a> meeting in South Korea. But South Korea\u2019s Unification Minister Chung Dong-young told lawmakers in mid-October that it was possible for Trump and Kim to meet at Panmunjom in the Demilitarized Zone again when the U.S. president comes to South Korea after visiting Malaysia and Japan. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe should see prospects for their meeting have increased,\u201d said Ban Kil Joo, assistant professor at the Korea National Diplomatic Academy in Seoul. He cited the recent suspension of civilian tours to the southern side of Panmunjom and Kim\u2019s comments about a possible return to talks. <\/p>\n

If the meeting doesn\u2019t occur, Ban said Kim will likely determine whether to resume diplomacy with Trump when he holds a major ruling party conference expected in January. <\/p>\n

No notable logistical preparations that imply an impending Kim-Trump meeting have been reported, but observers note that the 2019 get-together was arranged only a day after Trump issued an unorthodox meeting invitation by tweet.<\/p>\n

Kim\u2019s greater leverage <\/p>\n

Since his earlier diplomacy with Trump fell apart<\/a> due to disputes over U.S.-led sanctions on North Korea, Kim has accelerated the expansion of an arsenal of nuclear-capable missiles designed to strike the U.S. and its allies. He has also strengthened his diplomatic footprint by aligning with Russia<\/a> over its war in Ukraine and tightening relations with China.<\/p>\n

Subsequently, Kim\u2019s sense of urgency for talks with the United States could be much weaker now than it was six years ago, though some experts argue Kim would need to brace for the end of the Russia-Ukraine war. <\/p>\n

\u201cConsidering the current situation, it seems difficult to imagine Kim Jong Un coming over for talks,\u201d said Kim Tae-hyung, a professor at Seoul\u2019s Soongsil University. <\/p>\n

With an enlarged nuclear arsenal, stronger diplomatic backing from Russia and China and the weakening enforcement of sanctions<\/a>, Kim has greater leverage and clearly wants the U.S. to acknowledge North Korea as a nuclear power, a status needed to call for the lifting of U.N. sanctions. But that would run counter to the U.S. and its allies\u2019 long-held position that sanctions would stay in place unless North Korea fully abandons its nuclear program. <\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cIf a meeting with Kim Jong Un happens, Trump would brag of it and boast he\u2019s the one who can resolve Korean Peninsula issues as well, so he has something to gain … But would the U.S. have something substantial to give Kim Jong Un in return?\u201d said Chung Jin-young, a former dean of the Graduate School of Pan-Pacific International Studies at South Korea\u2019s Kyung Hee University.<\/p>\n

Koh Yu-hwan, a former president of South Korea\u2019s Institute of National Unification, said that any meeting between Trump and Kim around the APEC meeting is unlikely to produce meaningful results. To get Kim back to talks, Koh said Trump would have to bring something enticing him to the table this time around.<\/p>\n

North Korea\u2019s evolving threats <\/p>\n

Even if they don\u2019t meet this month, there are still chances for Trump and Kim to resume diplomacy later. Kim may see Trump as a rare U.S. leader willing to grant concessions like the nuclear state status, while Trump would think a meeting with Kim would give him a diplomatic achievement in the face of various domestic woes. <\/p>\n

There are both hopes and worries about potential dialogue between Trump and Kim.<\/p>\n

Some call for the role of diplomacy to ease the danger of North Korea\u2019s enlarged nuclear arsenal<\/a>. But others caution against Trump settling for rewarding North Korea with an extensive relaxing of sanctions in return for limited steps like freezing its unfinished long-range missile<\/a> program targeting the U.S. Such deals would leave North Korea with already-built, short-range nuclear missiles targeting South Korea.<\/p>\n

Kim Taewoo, another former head of the Institute of National Unification, said \u201csuch a small deal\u201d would still benefit South Korea\u2019s security because decades-long efforts to achieve a complete denuclearization of North Korea have made little progress. <\/p>\n

\u201cIf North Korea possesses an ability to strike the U.S., can the U.S. freely exercise its extended deterrence pledge in the event that North Korea attacks South Korea?\u201d Kim Taewoo said, referring to a U.S. promise to mobilize all military capabilities to protect South Korea. The country has no nuclear weapons of its own and is under the so-called U.S. \u201cnuclear umbrella\u201d protection<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Chung, the former university dean, said there are virtually no chances for North Korea to give up its nuclear program. But he said that giving North Korea sanctions relief in return for partial denuclearization steps would trigger calls in South Korea<\/a> and Japan for their countries to also be allowed to have nuclear weapons. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SEOUL, South Korea (AP) \u2014 The last time U.S. President Donald Trump visited South Korea in 2019, he…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":328545,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[3881,3774,13214,7838,69,57,24529,115465,50,24240,3659,80,3658,3657,16816,15243,93,103,107],"class_list":{"0":"post-328544","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"tag-ap-top-news","9":"tag-asia","10":"tag-asia-pacific","11":"tag-diplomacy","12":"tag-donald-trump","13":"tag-general-news","14":"tag-kim-jong-un","15":"tag-kim-taewoo","16":"tag-news","17":"tag-north-korea","18":"tag-north-korea-government","19":"tag-politics","20":"tag-russia-government","21":"tag-russia-ukraine-war","22":"tag-sanctions-and-embargoes","23":"tag-south-korea","24":"tag-washington-news","25":"tag-world","26":"tag-world-news"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115427940453945962","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/328544","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=328544"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/328544\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/328545"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=328544"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=328544"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=328544"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}