When asked by reporters if he is open to meeting with North Korean Supreme Leader Kim Jong Un during his multi-country tour of the Asian continent, which kicks off Saturday, President Donald Trump replied, “100 percent.”
The president said he would meet with the totalitarian dictator if Kim “would contact” him. During his first term, Trump met in-person with the North Korean leader a total of three times — and in 2019 made history as the first sitting U.S. president to enter North Korea, a country notoriously closed off to much of the outside world.
“He [Kim] probably knows I’m coming, right? Yeah, I’d be open to it, 100 percent. I got along very well with Kim Jong Un,” Trump told reporters Friday evening while aboard Air Force One.
“The last time I met him, I put it out over the internet that I’m coming to South Korea, and if he’d like to meet, I’m open to it. I’d do it. If you want to put out the word, I’m open to it,” the president added. “They [North Korea] don’t have a lot of telephone service. They have a lot of nuclear weapons but not a lot of telephone service. I’m open to it.”
“I think they are sort of a nuclear power,” Trump added. “I know how many weapons they have. … When you say they have to be recognized as a nuclear power, well, they’ve got a lot of nuclear weapons, I’ll say that.”
North Korea in August 2024 sent 250 nuclear-capable ballistic missile launchers to its border with South Korea. Kim attended a ceremony celebrating the weapons’ delivery.
During his successful 2024 presidential campaign, Trump told podcast host Tim Pool that he “felt very safe” as he visited North Korea in 2019.
“I felt my relationship with him, as you know, was very hostile. Little Rocket Man, and all,” the president told Pool, referring to Kim by an oft-used nickname. “But then, all of a sudden, it morphed. He respected me, I respected him. And we ended up, once we got to know each other, we ended up very good. Very smart guy, very strong guy. He’s the absolute leader of that country. For those that think he’s not, they’re wrong.”
Trump is set to stay in Asia for almost a week and will visit the countries of Malaysia, Japan and, finally, South Korea for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit — where his trip will culminate with a much-anticipated Thursday meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping. Trump will also meet with newly-elected Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, a conservative who is Japan’s first female head of government.
The White House and the State Department did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.
(Featured Image Media Credit: Gage Skidmore/Wikimedia Commons)
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