Former US President Donald Trump announced intentions to meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un later this year and indicated that secret negotiations were already underway between them. Trump further disclosed that North Korea possesses 57 nuclear weapons, an unusually specific intelligence revelation. He suggested a potential meeting could occur during a trip to Asia in November, coinciding with the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit scheduled for Shenzhen, China.
Trump stated he was in contact with Kim and expressed confidence in their relationship, asserting that as long as a competent president was in office, the North Korean leader would fare well. He declined to provide detailed confirmation about the nature or extent of direct communications but repeatedly affirmed his intent to meet with Kim later in the year.
However, Kim Yo-jong, the influential sister of North Korea’s supreme leader, contradicted Trump’s account by stating she was unaware of any such communications. She expressed skepticism that her brother had been secretly corresponding with the American president, suggesting it was the only matter regarding North Korea’s foreign policy of which she had no knowledge. Simultaneously, she acknowledged that Kim held positive personal feelings toward Trump while maintaining that the United States remained an adversary to North Korea.
Kim Yo-jong reiterated that Washington’s fundamental stance toward North Korea had not shifted and that hostile military activities continued. She also addressed separate claims by Ukraine’s president regarding North Korean military involvement in the Russia-Ukraine conflict, denying such allegations. Her statements highlighted the disconnect between Trump’s assertions of active diplomatic engagement and North Korea’s official messaging regarding the status of communications.
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