WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump said he plans to meet with Kim Jong Un of North Korea later this year as the president signaled plans to revive his first-term push for the North Korean leader to abandon his country's nuclear weapons program.
"Yeah, I will be," Trump told reporters on Aug. 19 when asked whether he expects to meet Kim later this year.
Trump in recent days has touted his relationship with Kim and directed the Pentagon to scale back joint military exercises with South Korea, a U.S. ally that he has pressed to pay more for its defense.
"The fact that I get along with him ‒ that's a good thing, not a bad thing," Trump said. "He has 57 very powerful nuclear weapons. Should have never allowed it to happen. If I was president, I wouldn't
have allowed it to happen. But he's got them."
The Wall Street Journal reported Trump has privately discussed a face-to-face meeting with Kim at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation in Shenzhen, China, set for Nov. 18 and 19. It would would be Trump's first meeting with the North Korean leader of his second term.
Trump met three times with Kim during his first term ‒ each, controversially, without setting preconditions ‒ including once at the Korean demilitarized zone in which Trump briefly stepped across the military demarcation line into North Korea. Trump's diplomatic efforts, however, failed to result in Kim reducing his country's arsenal of nuclear weapons.
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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Trump says he will meet this year with North Korea's Kim Jong Un
