President Donald Trump told reporters Wednesday that he will meet with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un by the end of the year, marking what would be their fourth face-to-face sit-down since Trump’s first term.
During his first term, Trump met with Kim in Singapore in 2018 and then in Vietnam in 2019 to discuss shuttering North Korea’s nuclear weapons program, though neither summit ended with a deal. The president again met with Kim at the Korean demilitarized zone during a trip to South Korea.
“Yeah, I will be,” Trump said during an impromptu press conference on the White House grounds after reporters asked whether the White House was setting up a meeting with Pyongyang government officials.
Trump and Kim exchanged dozens of handwritten letters during the president’s first term, but he declined to say Wednesday whether the two leaders had continued communications.
IRAN WAR PUTS NEW STRAIN ON US EFFORTS TO DETER CHINA
“I get along with him — that’s a good thing, not a bad thing,” he told reporters. “He has 57 very powerful nuclear weapons. Should have never allowed it to happen. They should have never allowed it. If I were president, I wouldn’t have allowed it, but he’s got them.”
“I know Kim Jong Un very well, and he’s going to be fine. As long as we have a smart president, he’s going to be fine,” Trump continued. “If we have a dumb president, then he’s probably not going to be so fine.”