Trump wants to meet North Korea's Kim Jong Un this year in meeting with South Korean president
- Alexangel Ventura
- Aug 25
- 2 min read
In his new meeting with the freshly sworn in South Korean president in the White House on Monday, President Donald J. Trump has expressed strong interest in meeting the infamous leader of North Korea Kim Jong Un as global tensions take a standstill amid Russo-Ukrainian peace negotiations.
The two world leaders met as they wish to kickstart diplomatic negotiations following the long-drawn internal struggle over the impeachment of previous South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol in the count of overreach of federal power after he initiated martial law.
Both South Korea and the United States, although close strategic allies against North Korea and China, have also recently engaged in complex tensions which faltered their relationship. President Trump previously demanded a double-digit increase in import tariffs from South Korea like he did with Japan and other close nations but ultimately reduced the tariff after a successful trade deal which involves a $350 billion investment pledge by the Koreans into the American economy. Additionally, President Trump rose criticisms of the "Purge or Revolution" in South Korea through his social media platform Truth Social but later dismissed his earlier accusations.
This meeting was high stakes as this was the first time the two countries sat together face-to-face since the previous controversies. President Lee Jae Myung, being a new recruit in Korean politics, overly praised Trump for his diplomatic agenda, stating, "I hope you can bring peace to the Korean Peninsula, the only divided nation in the world, so that you can meet with Kim Jong Un, build a Trump World [real-estate complex] in North Korea so that I can play golf there, and so that you can truly play a role as a world-historical peacemaker." While pun-inclusive, the President suggested that NK's advancements in nuclear technology would not have happened if Trump remained in office.
The meeting also involved the two leaders going back and forth on issues such as the potential pullback of American troops from the peninsula to sharing intelligence data.
While he received a great deal of praise from the Korean leader, Trump then exclaimed, "I'd like to meet him [Leader Kim] this year. I look forward to meeting with Kim Jong Un in the appropriate future."
A meeting like that has not happened since halfway into Trump's first term, when the leaders met in-person both in the demilitarized zone between the Koreas, and in a foreign meeting in Singapore. Trump has been criticized for exchanging "love letters" with the North Korean leader and not reaching an official deal with him, which Trump has remained adamant about his belief that he did ignite real progress between the two. Trump, using the momentum from his peace negotiations for the India-Pakistan conflict, the Russo-Ukrainian war, and other conflicts, has made it clear that he wants to meet with Kim to resolve decades-old differences once and for all.
