Trump before meeting with Kim Jong Un: North Korea is somehow a nuclear power

2025-10-25 09:57:00, Kosova & Bota CNA

United States President Donald Trump said on Friday that North Korea is "somehow a nuclear power."

He made the statement as he left the US for a trip to Asia that could include a meeting with Pyongyang leader Kim Jong Un.

Asked aboard the presidential plane, Air Force One, if he was open to North Korea's demand to be recognized as a nuclear state as a precondition for dialogue with Washington, Trump replied: "Well, I think they are somewhat of a nuclear power."

"When you say they should be recognized as a nuclear power, well, they have a lot of nuclear weapons, I will say that ," he added.

Trump is expected to arrive in South Korea on Wednesday for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum.

US media have previously reported that officials from his administration have privately discussed the possibility of organizing a meeting between Trump and North Korean leader Kim, with whom he last held talks in 2019. Trump has said he hopes to meet with Kim again, possibly this year.

Kim said last month that he had "fond memories" with Trump and that he was open to talks if the United States dropped its "illusory" demand that Pyongyang give up its nuclear weapons.

On Friday, a South Korean minister, Chung Dong-young, said he believed there was a "significant possibility" that Trump would meet with Kim during his visit to that region next week.

But a senior US official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told reporters in a call on Friday that a meeting "is not on the agenda for this trip."

While no official announcements have been made about a meeting between the two, South Korea and the United Nations Command suspended tours of the Joint Security Area (JSA) from late October to early November.

Kim and Trump last met in 2019 in Panmunjom, in the Demilitarized Zone that separates the two Koreas, which is the only place where soldiers from both sides regularly face off.

Minister Chung said North Koreans have been seen "cleaning and beautifying" areas near that site for the first time this year: cleaning, removing weeds, arranging flower beds and taking photos.

Kim met with Trump three times for high-profile summits during the US leader's first term.

Their latest and unexpected meeting at Panmunjom was hastily arranged after Trump sent an invitation to Kim on Twitter, now X, the day before.

At that time, the two leaders shook hands on the concrete slabs that separate North and South, before Trump walked a few steps into Pyongyang territory, becoming the first American president to ever set foot on North Korean soil.

But the talks ultimately failed due to disagreements over how much of its nuclear arsenal North Korea was willing to surrender and what Pyongyang would get in return.

Since then, North Korea has repeatedly declared that it is an "irreversible" nuclear state. /REL