WASHINGTON — President Trump confirmed Wednesday he plans to meet with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un later this year, the third sitdown between the two across the commander in chief’s two terms.
Trump declined to give a date for the meeting but reports have suggested it could happen in November, when the president is in China for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit.
“I get along with him, and you know what? The fact that I get along with him-that’s a good thing, not a bad thing,” Trump told reporters at the White House, adding that Kim has “57 very powerful nuclear weapons.”
“Should have never allowed it to happen,” the president added. “They should have never allowed it. If I were president, I wouldn’t have allowed it. But he’s got them.”
Past intelligence assessments have indicated North Korea has between 50 and 60 active nuclear warheads, but Trump’s comments marked the first time a US official has given a specific number
Pyongyang did not immediately confirm a Trump-Kim meeting on their end, with the portly dictator’s powerful sister Kim Yo Jong saying to state media: “We think it’s not worth making comments on that and we have not any interest in it.”
Over the weekend, Trump announced that he had ordered War Secretary Pete Hegseth to “substantially” cut back a regularly scheduled military drill with South Korea.
The president made the surprising announcement on social media a few hours before the exercises were scheduled to begin. The drill, known as Ulchi Freedom Shield, will now end Aug. 21 instead of Aug. 27.
The US sees North Korea’s nuclear program as a threat to the region and the joint exercise has been considered a useful way to practice responding to potential strikes.
Trump’s announcement came after North Korea complained about the drills and the president’s drawdown order did not appear to appease Pyongyang.
“The provocative, aggressive nature of the drills won’t change even though their duration and size were reduced,” Kim’s sister said.
But the president on Wednesday shrugged off any concerns about North Korean aggression.
“He’s going to be fine as long as we have a smart president,” Trump said of Kim Jong Un. “If we have a dumb president, then he’s probably not going to be so fine.”
Trump and the North Korean leader had a close relationship in his first term. At a rally in 2018, Trump said the two “fell in love” after exchanging letters.
“He wrote me beautiful letters, and they’re great letters,” he said at the time.
Trump and Kim have met a total of three times. The first, which took place in Singapore in June 2018, marked the first-ever summit between a sitting US president and a North Korean leader.
The duo met again in February 2019 in Hanoi, Vietnam, before Trump ventured to the Demilitarized Zone that June, where he greeted Kim and became the first American president to set foot on North Korean soil.
