US President Donald Trump speaks during a meeting with lifeguard Ryder Williams at the Oval Office of the White House in Washington on Monday. [AP]
US President Donald Trump speaks during a meeting with lifeguard Ryder Williams at the Oval Office of the White House in Washington on Monday. [AP]

US President Donald Trump said North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has responded to his overtures for talks, suggesting that behind-the-scenes contact between the two sides is underway. Trump declined to disclose when or through what channel Kim replied, but described the state of dialogue as "very positive."

Speaking to reporters at the White House on Monday, Trump pushed back when asked why Kim had not responded to his offer to talk. "How do you know he hasn't responded?" he said.

When a reporter followed up by asking directly whether Kim had in fact replied, Trump said: "Yeah, he has."

Asked how far along the talks had progressed, Trump said only that things were "very positive," without elaborating on the timing, channel or substance of Kim's response.

The remarks came shortly after Trump announced Monday that he had directed Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to significantly scale back US-South Korea joint military exercises. In a post on his Truth Social platform, Trump said he had ordered the reduction because he and Kim maintain a good relationship and the drills could send an inappropriate signal to Pyongyang.

The announcement prompted speculation that the order to scale back the exercises was a conciliatory gesture aimed at reviving US-North Korea dialogue. It remains unclear whether Kim's response came before or after Trump issued that directive.

Trump rebuffed suggestions that scaling back the joint drills prioritized North Korea's interests over those of ally South Korea. "I'm making the situation a lot safer," he said.

"Chairman Kim has always respected me very much, and we've met a number of times," Trump said. "I understand him and he understands me."

He added that Kim had disliked Joe Biden and Barack Obama and "didn't like anybody," but said he himself gets along with Kim very well. "What I'm doing right now is making things safer," he said.

Trump and Kim held summits in Singapore in 2018 and in Hanoi, Vietnam, in 2019 during Trump's first term. In June 2019, the two met at Panmunjom, where Trump became the first sitting US president to step across the MDL onto North Korean soil.

Trump also repeated his claim that South Korean President Lee Jae Myung had declined a request for support on Iran during a recent phone call between the two leaders.

Trump said he had called Lee — whom he described as "a president of South Korea that I like" — and asked whether South Korea could lend a hand on Iran, framing it as optional rather than essential. He said Lee replied: "No, thanks."

Trump said he then told Lee: "Wait a minute — we have 39,000 troops there protecting you from your neighbor Kim Jong-un, and you won't help us with a very easy military operation in Iran?"

However, the 39,000 figure Trump cited does not reflect the actual size of US Forces Korea. The current USFK troop level stands at approximately 28,500.

According to Trump, Lee replied, "We'd rather not get involved," to which Trump said he responded: "Then why are we getting involved in helping you?"

Trump also claimed that during his first term he had secured increases in South Korea's defense cost-sharing contributions, only for the Biden administration to reverse those gains. "We could have gotten a lot more money," he said.

Grouping South Korea with NATO member states, Trump said: "We can't go around protecting all these countries when they won't step up to help us."

He did add, however, that he considers Lee "a very nice person."

With Trump simultaneously disclosing Kim's response, framing the exercise reduction as a safety measure and reviving his longstanding argument that South Korea is a free rider on US security, the prospect is growing that alliance management and defense cost-sharing will become entangled with any future push to advance US-North Korea talks.


sjy@heraldcorp.com