![North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and US President Donald Trump shake hands across the Military Demarcation Line at Panmunjom in June 2019. [Yonhap]](https://wimg.heraldcorp.com/news/cms/2026/08/20/news-p.v1.20260820.f790a7542cc54d4abdd25bafc33124e3_P1.jpg)
With Donald Trump repeatedly and forcefully signaling his desire for a North Korea-US summit, attention is now fixed on whether Kim Jong-un will respond in kind.
Trump told reporters Wednesday (local time) that he intends to meet Kim before the end of the year.
The timing of Trump's remarks is particularly notable: they came after a statement by Kim Yo-jong, the North Korean leader's sister and director of the Korean Workers' Party General Affairs Department.
In a statement on "positions on major international issues" carried by KCNA on Wednesday night, Kim Yo-jong drew a line on reports of recent communications between the two leaders. "As for the Washington-originated news that there has recently been communication between the leaders of the DPRK and the US, I can say it is something I know nothing about," she said, adding it would be "the only matter related to our supreme leadership's foreign policy of which I am unaware."
Trump's remarks about meeting Kim this year came roughly two hours after Kim Yo-jong's statement was published.
Despite her comments — which could be read as a rebuff — Trump once again declared his commitment to a North Korea-US summit.
Kim Yo-jong also dismissed Trump's stated intention to sharply scale back joint US-South Korea military exercises, saying she found it "not the least bit interesting."
"Reducing the scale or duration of the exercises does not change the provocative and aggressive nature of the military CPX," she said, adding that North Korea was "paying closer attention to the reality that they are still ongoing" and calling them "an undeniable expression of overt hostility toward Korea."
She went on to say that if Washington intended to promote its move as "a goodwill gesture," it would "not get the answer it wants."
Even as Kim Yo-jong denied any knowledge of leader-to-leader communications, she left a subtle opening on the question of the two men's relationship. "It has already been made clear on multiple occasions that our head of state personally holds fond memories of and feelings toward Trump," she said. "The relationship between the two leaders remains excellent."
Some analysts read this as leaving room for a conditional acceptance of dialogue depending on how events unfold.
The prevailing view is that North Korea, even if it agrees to a summit, will focus above all on keeping denuclearization off the table as a precondition for talks.
"Reading Kim Yo-jong's remarks, the message is: 'We can meet anytime — just tell us the conditions,'" said Shin Bum-chul, a senior research fellow at the Sejong Institute. "The underlying intent appears to be: 'Don't bring up the nuclear issue, and in effect tacitly accept our nuclear status.'"
Hong Min, a senior research fellow at the Korea Institute for National Unification, said Kim Yo-jong was signaling that "no message has arrived, so if you're going to send one, send it properly." He added that she had framed South Korea's "hostile identity" to preset North Korea-US dialogue as a structure that excludes Seoul.
Hong went on to say that "North Korea-US relations have entered a kind of 'flirting' phase of mutual probing and signal exchange," and that "the likelihood of Trump using the North Korea-US channel to formally explore dialogue has, if anything, grown in response to Kim Yo-jong's signals."
Unlike during Trump's previous encounters with Kim, North Korea has since dramatically deepened its ties with China and Russia — securing tacit acceptance of its nuclear status and closer military cooperation — leaving Pyongyang in no particular hurry for North Korea-US dialogue and well-positioned to drive up its asking price. If denuclearization is dropped from the agenda entirely, Kim and North Korea stand to gain international stature with little reason to refuse.
"North Korea has indirectly signaled that it has things it wants should North Korea-US dialogue open," said Shin Jong-woo, secretary general of the Korea Defense and Security Forum. "With China and Russia now more important to North Korea than the United States, the intent to use a North Korea-US summit to further expand its leverage is clear."
Against this backdrop, President Lee Jae Myung posted late Wednesday night on X (formerly Twitter) expressing support for Trump's decision. "I share the conviction of, and pay my respects to, President Trump's will and effort to create conditions for dialogue toward building a peace regime on the Korean Peninsula — even through reducing joint US-South Korea combined exercises and field maneuver training," Lee wrote.
"President Trump's message feels like a weighty decision born of deep deliberation to move beyond hostility and confrontation on the Korean Peninsula and toward peace," Lee said. "I hope this decision by President Trump will lead, through the building of trust and the resumption of dialogue between North Korea and the United States, to the establishment of a stable peace regime on the Korean Peninsula."
Lee also addressed Trump's call for South Korea to join efforts toward Iran's denuclearization. "The South Korean government has on multiple occasions made clear its intention to actively join the international community, including the United States, in efforts to restore freedom of navigation in the Strait of Hormuz," he said.
He added that the government "will continue to communicate closely with the US side, as it has done, on various practical ways to contribute within the bounds permissible under South Korean law and fundamental policy."
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