President Donald Trump waves as he boards Air Force One at Joint Base Andrews, Md., on Aug. 14, 2026. AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson
U.S. President Donald Trump said Aug. 19 he planned to meet North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un later this year as the communist state’s expanding nuclear weapons program raises concerns among the United States and its allies in the region.
“He has 57 very powerful nuclear weapons,” Trump told reporters. “We should have never have allowed it to happen. If I were president, I wouldn’t have let it happen, but he’s got them.”
A reporter asked the president if he expected to meet with Kim, and Trump answered “Yeah, I will be.”
Trump met with Kim three times during his first term and has mentioned a desire to meet with the leader during his second term, but attempts have been unsuccessful.
Kim’s sister, Kim Yo-jong, released a statement through the Korean Central News Agency dismissing Trump’s claim that he had communicated with the North Korean government earlier in the week but left the door open to talks between the leaders.
“I know nothing about it,” Kim Yo-jong said. “It must be the only matter concerning the supreme leadership’s foreign policy that I am unaware of.”
She added: “Our head of state holds good memories and personal feelings toward Trump. The relationship between the two leaders is excellent.”
Trump was later in the day asked by a White House correspondent if his goal was denuclearization of North Korea, and the president said he didn’t “want to talk about that.”
“I do have a good relationship with Kim Jong Un,” Trump said at a press conference at the White House. “He likes me. I just got along with him very good. We had great meetings.”
South Korea and the United States scaled back an annual Ulchi Freedom Shield military exercise and agreed to reduce some field training that started this week after Trump
directed
the Pentagon to shorten them.
“I was not happy when South Korea said they were not interested in helping us with the Hormuz Strait,” Trump said. “I felt to do a massive war exercise, I thought that was very insulting to somebody that during my term was very well behaved.”
The exercises will run through Aug. 21 instead of continuing until Aug. 27 as originally planned.
U.S. Army soldiers conduct a training exercise on a river in Yeoncheon, South Korea, near the border with North Korea, on Aug. 18, 2026. Ahn Young-joon/AP
The allies also agreed to conduct combined field maneuver training on a reduced scale.
A trilateral
statement
from the United States, South Korea, and Japan was issued in March to the United Nations Security Council about concerns over North Korea’s nuclear weapons program.
The countries reiterated their commitment to the complete denuclearization of North Korea in the statement, saying the country’s programs undermined security in the region.
“North Korea continues to expand its unlawful nuclear program,” the letter states.
In this pool photograph distributed by the Russian state agency Sputnik, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un arrives for a meeting with Russia’s president in Beijing on Sept. 3, 2025. Alexander Kazakov/POOL/AFP via Getty Images
The report also indicates evidence of continued operation of a nuclear reactor at Yongbyon and reprocessing activity, along with expansion of the country’s uranium enrichment complexes. It documented efforts toward development of a nuclear-powered submarine.
The three signatory countries had “serious concern” over military cooperation between North Korea and Russia, including ballistic missile and other arms transfers in direct violation of U.N. Security Council resolutions.
