Trump says he may meet Kim Jong Un during November Asia trip

President Donald Trump said Monday, October 12, 2026, that he may meet North Korean leader Kim Jong Un during a planned trip to Asia in November, raising the possibility of renewed leader-level diplomacy while stopping well short of announcing a summit.

Trump made the comment at the White House when a reporter asked whether he planned to see Kim on the trip. Yonhap News Agency quoted him replying, “I may,” and adding that such a meeting would be exciting. Trump also said he gets along with the North Korean leader. Reuters separately reported that Trump had signaled a possible meeting as North Korea continued to showcase its missile program.

No meeting has been confirmed. Neither Washington nor Pyongyang had announced a date, venue or agenda as of Tuesday morning, October 13. Trump's language described an option under consideration, not a completed diplomatic arrangement. That distinction is important because a presidential expression of interest does not by itself mean that preparations for a summit are under way.

Yonhap reported that Trump plans to attend the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Shenzhen, China, on November 18 and 19. The trip would provide a regional setting for diplomatic contacts, but the public report did not specify where a Trump-Kim encounter might take place or whether North Korea had responded to the idea.

Trump and Kim met three times during Trump's first presidency. Their first summit took place in Singapore in June 2018, followed by a second meeting in Hanoi in February 2019. The Hanoi talks ended without an agreement after the two sides failed to bridge differences over sanctions relief and North Korea's nuclear program. Trump later met Kim at Panmunjom, in the Korean Demilitarized Zone, in June 2019.

Those meetings produced unusually direct contact between a sitting U.S. president and a North Korean leader, but they did not yield a lasting denuclearization agreement. Relations subsequently returned to a pattern of weapons development, sanctions and intermittent statements about negotiations. Any new encounter would therefore reopen a diplomatic channel rather than continue an active summit process.

Trump had already revived speculation about personal diplomacy with Kim before Monday's exchange. Yonhap said he expressed hope in August that he could meet Kim later in the year. At a campaign rally in Youngstown, Ohio, on Saturday, October 10, Trump again said he gets along well with Kim and argued that maintaining relations with leaders of nuclear-armed countries can reduce risk.

The comment also came during renewed military tension on the Korean Peninsula. North Korea fired two ballistic missiles toward waters off its east coast on Monday, according to South Korea's military. A separate Yonhap report said the U.S. Pacific Command condemned the launches and reaffirmed its commitments to South Korea and Japan. North Korea's weapons activity and the unresolved nuclear dispute would form the central security context for any talks.

The State Department has left the door open to engagement in principle. Yonhap quoted spokesperson Tommy Pigott as saying earlier that Trump does not regard talks with North Korea as a concession and would engage if doing so served U.S. interests. That general position does not confirm negotiations over a November meeting.

For now, the development is a public signal from Trump rather than a diplomatic breakthrough. A meeting would become concrete only if the governments announce arrangements or officials confirm preparations. Until then, the most precise account is that Trump said he may meet Kim during the Asia trip and that the possibility remains unconfirmed.

Sources and image credit

Trump's remarks, itinerary and diplomatic background: Yonhap News Agency

Independent reporting on the possible meeting and North Korea's missile display: Reuters via Google News

Ballistic-missile launch and U.S. Pacific Command response: Yonhap News Agency

Image: Official White House photograph via Wikimedia Commons (public domain; Trump and Kim at the Korean Demilitarized Zone on June 30, 2019; cropped to 16:9).