US President Donald Trump confirmed on Wednesday that he plans to meet North Korean leader Kim Jong-un later this year, reviving hopes of personal diplomacy with the isolated nuclear state. Speaking to reporters at the White House, Trump said simply, "Yeah, I will be," when asked about a potential meeting, though he declined to elaborate on specifics or confirm whether he was in direct contact with Pyongyang. The Wall Street Journal has reported that Trump is pushing aides to arrange an in-person meeting, potentially on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Shenzhen, China, in November.
In a notable disclosure, Trump also revealed that North Korea possesses 57 "very powerful" nuclear weapons — the first time he has cited a specific figure for the country's nuclear arsenal. Experts have estimated Pyongyang holds roughly 60 warheads, with fissile material sufficient to build many more. Trump acknowledged the stockpile should never have been allowed to develop, while insisting his personal rapport with Kim remained an asset. He declined to say whether his engagement with North Korea would still be aimed at full denuclearisation, raising questions about whether his administration might settle for narrower goals such as tension reduction.
The diplomatic overture was complicated almost immediately by a statement from Kim Yo-jong, the North Korean leader's influential younger sister and a senior figure in the ruling Korean Workers' Party, who said she knew "absolutely nothing" about any secret communications between the two leaders. While she acknowledged that Kim held "good memories and feelings" toward Trump personally and described their relationship as "excellent," she was categorical that the US remained an enemy. "The United States' hostile policy toward the DPRK has not changed," she said, using the official name for North Korea, adding that ongoing US military activities continued to threaten Pyongyang.
The backdrop to these developments includes Trump's recent decision to cut short joint military exercises between the United States and South Korea — a decades-long alliance drill on the Korean Peninsula, where the two Koreas have technically been at war since fighting halted in a 1953 armistice. The exercises were shortened from 11 days to 5, a move widely interpreted as a conciliatory gesture toward Pyongyang. Kim Yo-jong dismissed the reduction as "unworthy of comment," while South Korea's president expressed concern that the decision could weaken the alliance's deterrent posture.
Analysts suggest Trump's renewed interest in Kim diplomacy may be driven in part by a desire for a high-profile foreign policy win, particularly as the ongoing conflict with Iran has pushed energy prices higher and midterm congressional elections approach in November. Trump and Kim met three times during Trump's first term — in Singapore in 2018, Hanoi in 2019, and at the inter-Korean border village of Panmunjom — but those talks ultimately stalled. Whether Kim will respond to fresh overtures remains uncertain, given Pyongyang's deepening ties with Russia and China, which have reduced its economic and diplomatic dependence on any potential deal with Washington.