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 with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un to revive faltering nuclear talks.

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

Many experts say prospects for another impromptu meeting aren’t bright this time but predict Mr. Trump and Mr. Kim could eventually sit down for talks again in coming months. Others dispute that, saying a quick resumption of diplomacy isn’t still likely given how much has changed since 2019 — both the size of North Korea’s nuclear program and its foreign policy leverage.

Mr. Trump has repeatedly expressed his desire to restore diplomacy with Mr. Kim as he boasted of his relationship with the North Korean leader and called him “a smart guy.” Ending his silence on Mr. Trump’s outreach, Mr. Kim last month said he held “good personal memories” of Mr. Trump and suggested he could return to talks if the U.S. drops “its delusional obsession with denuclearization” of North Korea.

Both Washington and Pyongyang haven’t hinted at any high-profile meeting ahead of the October 31-November 1 Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation meeting in South Korea. But South Korea’s Unification Minister Chung Dong-young told lawmakers in mid-October that it was possible for Mr. Trump and Mr. Kim to meet at Panmunjom in the Demilitarized Zone again when the U.S. President comes to South Korea after visiting Malaysia and Japan.

“We should see prospects for their meeting have increased,” 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 Mr. Kim’s comments about a possible return to talks.

If the meeting doesn’t occur, Mr. Ban said Mr. Kim will likely determine whether to resume diplomacy with Mr. Trump when he holds a major ruling party conference expected in January.

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 Mr. Trump issued an unorthodox meeting invitation by tweet.

Since his earlier diplomacy with Mr. Trump fell apart due to disputes over U.S.-led sanctions on North Korea, Mr. 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 over its war in Ukraine and tightening relations with China.

Subsequently, Mr. Kim’s sense of urgency for talks with the United States could be much weaker now than it was six years ago, though some experts argue Mr. Kim would need to brace for the end of the Russia-Ukraine war.

“Considering the current situation, it seems difficult to imagine Kim Jong Un coming over for talks,” said Kim Tae-hyung, a professor at Seoul’s Soongsil University.

With an enlarged nuclear arsenal, stronger diplomatic backing from Russia and China and the weakening enforcement of sanctions, Mr. 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’ long-held position that sanctions would stay in place unless North Korea fully abandons its nuclear program.

“If a meeting with Kim Jong Un happens, Mr. Trump would brag of it and boast he’s 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?” said Chung Jin-young, a former dean of the Graduate School of Pan-Pacific International Studies at South Korea’s Kyung Hee University.

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

Even if they don’t meet this month, there are still chances for Mr. Trump and Mr. Kim to resume diplomacy later. Mr. Kim may see Mr. Trump as a rare U.S. leader willing to grant concessions like the nuclear state status, while Mr. Trump would think a meeting with Mr. Kim would give him a diplomatic achievement in the face of various domestic woes.

There are both hopes and worries about potential dialogue between Mr. Trump and Mr. Kim.

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

Kim Taewoo, another former head of the Institute of National Unification, said “such a small deal” would still benefit South Korea’s security because decades-long efforts to achieve a complete denuclearization of North Korea have made little progress.

“If 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?” Mr. 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. “nuclear umbrella” protection.

Mr. 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 and Japan for their countries to also be allowed to have nuclear weapons.

Published – October 24, 2025 03:24 pm IST

South Korea’s President has asked President Donald Trump to become “a peacemaker” and use his leadership to get North Korea to talks to reduce military tensions on the Korean Peninsula, the South’s top diplomat said Friday (September 26, 2025).

Mr. Trump “welcomed” the request from President Lee Jae Myung and “he expressed his willingness to be engaged with North Korea again,” Foreign Minister Cho Hyun said in an interview with The Associated Press. There was no immediate word from the White House.

Mr. Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un met three times as North Korea was building a nuclear weapons stockpile, which Mr. Kim views as key to the country’s security and his continued rule of the northeast Asian nation.

There were two summits in Singapore in June 2018, and in Vietnam in February 2019, where Mr. Trump and Mr. Kim disagreed about U.S.-led sanctions against the North. A third meeting that year at the border between the two Koreas failed to salvage their nuclear talks and Mr. Kim has since shunned any diplomacy with the U.S. and South Korea.

“It would be fantastic if they met with each other in the near future,” Mr. Cho said. “And President Lee made it clear to President Trump that he will not be sitting in the driver’s seat. He asked President Trump to become a peacemaker, and he relegated himself to become a pacemaker,” the foreign minister said. “We don’t mind. On the contrary, we want President Trump to exercise his leadership to pull North Korea to dialogue table.”

Since Mr. Trump returned to power in January, he has repeatedly expressed hope of restarting talks with Mr. Kim. The North Korean leader said on Monday (September 22, 2025) he still has “good memories” of Mr. Trump but urged the United States to drop its demand that the North surrender its nuclear arms as a precondition for resuming long-stalled diplomacy.

Mr. Trump is expected to visit South Korea next month to attend the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit, which has prompted media speculation that he might meet Mr. Kim again at the border. Mr. Trump is also expected to meet with Chinese leader Xi Jinping during that meeting.

The Foreign Minister said Mr. Lee asked Mr. Trump to take the lead because the world has changed and become “much more precarious” since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022.

“Accordingly, we are equally worried about any possible military skirmish on the Korean Peninsula,” Mr. Cho said. “So we are compelled to explore dialogues with North Korea to reduce the military tension, and at least we want to have a hotline.”

Denuclearisation of Korean Peninsula

Mr. Cho stressed that denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula “is the imperative – we cannot let it go.”

Early on Friday, South Korea’s military said it fired warning shots to drive away a North Korean merchant ship that briefly crossed the disputed western sea boundary between the two countries, amid continuing high tensions.

“I’m not surprised at all,” Mr. Cho said, “but this incident justifies the policy of the new government that we need to have a hotline between the militaries, reduce the military tension and build confidence between the two parties.”

Mr. Lee, who headed the left-leaning Democratic Party, won a snap election in June following the impeachment of former President Yoon Suk Yeol after his short-lived imposition of martial law in December. Mr. Cho, a career diplomat and former U.N. ambassador, took office as foreign minister on July 19.

In Mr. Lee’s speech to the annual meeting of world leaders at the U.N. General Assembly on Tuesday (September 23, 2025), he said South Korea has come back to the international community as a normal state after the domestic turmoil and has demonstrated its commitment to democracy.

Mr. Cho said he felt “a bit uncomfortable” talking about the previous government compared to the current government, since Mr. Yoon was elected. But Cho recalled that when Mr. Yoon, who had been a prosecutor, was elected, he was convinced “he would become an aberration.”

Since becoming foreign minister, Mr. Cho said he has been explaining to neighboring countries, including during visits to Japan and China, that the new government “is determined to seek peace on the Korean Peninsula and also in northeast Asia.”

He said the government wants to engage China and he had a “very good constructive meeting” with Foreign Minister Wang Yi, “but I made it clear that there are certain things we cannot accept.”

Mr. Cho referred to China’s installation of “something” in the Yellow Sea that infringes on South Korea’s sovereignty. “So we made it clear that it be removed. Otherwise, we would think about taking proper measures,” he said.

Mr. Cho flew to Washington immediately after a massive raid by U.S. immigration officers at a Hyundai plant in southeast Georgia detained 475 people, the majority of them South Koreans. It became a major diplomatic issue between the two countries.

The minister said Mr. Trump intervened and wanted them to remain, but they were chained and handcuffed and his primary objective was to get them back home.

Mr. Cho said his talks with Secretary of State Marco Rubio ended up having “a silver lining” because obtaining visas for South Korean workers has been a longstanding problem and “we were able to address this issue squarely and we will be able to sort out the problem.”

Published – September 27, 2025 01:05 pm IST