President Donald Trump said he plans to meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un later this year and offered an updated assessment of Pyongyang’s nuclear arsenal, saying it possesses “57 very powerful nuclear weapons.”
During an impromptu meeting with reporters outside the White House on Wednesday morning, Trump said his relationship with Kim was an asset for the United States and the world.
“I get along with him well,” Trump said. “And you know what? The fact that I get along with him, that’s a very good thing, not a bad thing.”
Trump said North Korea should never have been allowed to acquire nuclear weapons but suggested that Kim could be managed as long as the U.S. had strong leadership.
“As long as we have a smart president, he’s going to be fine,” Trump said.
Trump’s statement that North Korea has 57 nuclear warheads was within the range of widely reported estimates but was more specific than past U.S. government statements.
“They should have never allowed it. If I were president, I wouldn’t have allowed it. But he’s got them,” Trump said of the North Korean leader.
In fact, North Korea continued to expand its nuclear arsenal during Trump’s first term.
The White House did not immediately confirm the plans for a Trump-Kim meeting. Trump is expected to be in Asia in mid-November for the annual Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit, which is being held in China.
On Sunday, Trump said he had directed Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to “substantially reduce” military exercises with South Korea, citing his “very good relationship” with Kim.
A day later, speaking to reporters in the Oval Office, Trump attributed his frustration with Seoul to its refusal to assist the U.S. in defending the Strait of Hormuz. Trump said he had recently asked the South Korean president “to give us a little hand” with the operation.
“He said, ‘No, thanks,’” Trump recalled. “And I said … we have 39,000 soldiers over there guarding you from Kim Jong Un, your next-door neighbor, and you’re not going to help us on a very easy military operation in Iran? … I see. Well, why are we involved in helping you?”
North Korea has expanded its nuclear arsenal despite decades of U.S. sanctions and diplomatic pressure aimed at forcing Pyongyang to give up its weapons. U.S. officials and outside experts have previously estimated that North Korea possesses 50 to 60 nuclear warheads.
Trump has long taken a more personal approach to Kim than previous presidents. During his first term, the two leaders met three times — in Singapore in 2018, in Hanoi in 2019 and later that year at the Korean Peninsula’s demilitarized zone — but their diplomacy has not produced an agreement curbing North Korea’s nuclear program.
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