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U.S. President Donald Trump described North Korea as “sort of a nuclear power” and said he is open to meeting its leader, Kim Jong Un, as he began a tour of Asia that will include talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping.
“Well, I think they are sort of a nuclear power. I mean, I know how many weapons they have. I know everything about them, and I’ve had a very good relationship with Kim Jong Un,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One on Friday, according to an audio recording released by the White House.
“When you say they have to be recognized as a nuclear power—well, they’ve got a lot of nuclear weapons. I’ll say that,” he added. “If he’d like to meet, I’m open to it.”
Despite Trump’s comments, a senior U.S. official said Friday that no meeting with Kim is scheduled during the president’s five-day tour of Asia.
“The president, of course, has expressed his willingness to meet with Kim Jong Un in the future. It is not on the schedule for this trip,” the official told reporters during a conference call.
Trump departed for Malaysia on Friday to attend the 47th Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) summit in Kuala Lumpur.
He will begin his series of official visits Sunday in Malaysia, where he is expected to “preside over a significant peace agreement that will save more lives, reduce more conflict, and advance security across a free and open Indo-Pacific,” the official said.
Pyongyang has previously said a meeting could occur if Washington accepts its nuclear status, which Kim has called “irreversible.”
Trump is scheduled to travel on Wednesday to the South Korean port city of Busan for talks with President Lee Jae-myung before delivering remarks at the APEC CEO luncheon and attending a U.S.-APEC leaders’ working dinner that evening. He will then head to Beijing for a summit with Xi on Thursday.
Speculation has grown that Trump could meet Kim in the demilitarized zone (DMZ) between North and South Korea, where they last met in 2019 during Trump’s first term. That meeting was part of a failed U.S. effort to secure a denuclearization deal with Pyongyang.
On Monday, South Korea’s Unification Ministry announced that field trips to Panmunjom, the truce village in the DMZ, will be suspended until early November.
Meanwhile, hundreds of South Koreans held an anti-Trump protest in Seoul on Saturday, carrying placards reading “No Trump,” according to footage circulating online.
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