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Experts are predicting that President Trump could meet with North Korean Premier Kim Jong Un for the first since 2019, as he returns to Asia.
According to The Associated Press, “speculation is rife” that Trump will meet with Kim during his visit to South Korea.
Their last meeting—their fourth—took place at the Korean border village of Panmunjom, in the Demilitarized Zone, in June 2019.
AP reports, “Many experts say prospects for another impromptu meeting aren’t bright this time but predict Trump and Kim could eventually sit down for talks again in coming months. Others dispute that, saying a quick resumption of diplomacy isn’t still likely given how much has changed since 2019—both the size of North Korea’s nuclear program and its foreign policy leverage.”
Trump has repeatedly expressed a desire to re-engage with North Korea and continue efforts to secure a lasting deal on its nuclear ambitions. Last month, the President called Kim Jong Un a “smart guy,” and North Korea’s leader returned the compliment by saying he had “good personal memories” of Trump.
Kim Jong Un suggested talks could only resume, however, if the US dropped “its delusional obsession with denuclearization.”
Although there have been no official indications a meeting will take place, South Korea’s Unification Minister Chung Dong-young told lawmakers this month that it was possible for Trump and Kim to meet at Panmunjom again when the U.S. president comes to South Korea after visiting Malaysia and Japan.
Since the collapse of diplomacy between the US and North Korea, the isolated Stalinist nation has ploughed ahead with the development of a long-range nuclear arsenal, with missiles capable of striking the US and its allies. He has also strengthened his alliances with Russia, including sending troops to fight in Ukraine, and with China.
Experts believe North Korea now possesses significantly greater leverage for negotiation with the US than it had during President Trump’s first term.
“If a meeting with Kim Jong Un happens, Trump would brag of it and boast he’s the one who can resolve Korean Peninsula issues as well, so he has something to gain… But would the U.S. have something substantial to give Kim Jong Un in return?” said Chung Jin-young, a former dean of the Graduate School of Pan-Pacific International Studies at South Korea’s Kyung Hee University.
Although many believe there is little prospect of North Korea surrendering its nuclear arsenal entirely, many believe relief from sanctions, in exchange for partial denuclearization, could have the consequence of driving South Korea and Japan to seek their own nuclear weapons.
