US President Donald Trump (right) and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un talk as they leave the summit venue in Singapore in June 2018. [Reuters]
US President Donald Trump (right) and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un talk as they leave the summit venue in Singapore in June 2018. [Reuters]

US President Donald Trump is pushing to meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un before the end of the year, according to a new report.

The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday that Trump has been urging his aides to arrange a meeting with Kim as early as this fall.

Aides told the Journal they have been privately discussing the possibility of Trump holding a face-to-face meeting with Kim on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit scheduled for November in Shenzhen, China. The plan would have Trump meet Kim during an Asia tour coinciding with his attendance at the APEC summit.

A White House official told the Journal that Trump and Kim would meet at the appropriate time. North Korea's mission to the UN did not immediately respond to the Journal's request for comment.

Trump made a similar overture during his Asia tour last year, asking reporters aboard Air Force One to "pass the word" to Kim. The Journal, citing people familiar with the matter, said North Korea had quietly sent "open signals" at the time, but the tight schedule made it too difficult to work out the logistics.

Trump's own calculations also appeared to play a role. He reportedly concluded that even if a meeting with Kim had taken place, it would have been overshadowed by his summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping, which was already scheduled in South Korea. After a 100-minute meeting with Xi at Gimhae Airport, Trump told reporters asking about a possible meeting with Kim that it "might have been a little rude" and that he would "visit again with respect to Kim Jong-un."

Victor Cha, Korea chair at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said Trump "has made it clear he wants to meet Kim Jong-un again." On the recent scaling back of joint US-South Korea military exercises, Cha said the drills had given Trump "a concrete way to show Kim he is serious about meeting."

South Korea's embassy in Washington said in a statement that it hopes the "friendly relationship" between Trump and Kim will lead to "meaningful dialogue" that promotes stability on the Korean Peninsula.

Experts, however, warned that if a summit does take place, Kim would enter it from a position of greater leverage than Trump.

North Korea has strengthened ties with China, deepened missile cooperation with Iran, and sent thousands of troops to support Russia in the war in Ukraine. Kim met with Xi in June and is expected to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin before the end of the year. Beyond the nuclear capabilities Pyongyang has built since nuclear negotiations collapsed during Trump's first term, Kim now has the backing of deepening trilateral cooperation among North Korea, China and Russia.

The Trump administration, by contrast, urgently needs a political breakthrough, weighed down by a stalled conflict in Iran and other pressures. Experts say the administration's drive to produce tangible results from negotiations — and claim a diplomatic win — is evident on multiple fronts.


kate01@heraldcorp.com