Trump open to meeting North Korea’s Kim on Asia trip but nothing scheduled

Trump and Kim have both expressed an interest in meeting again, but a US official said a meeting is ‘not on the schedule’.

Donald Trump is not scheduled to meet North Korean leader Kim Jong Un while in South Korea next week, a senior United States official has said, despite speculation about a meeting while the US president tours Asia.

“The president, of course, has expressed his willingness to meet with Kim Jong Un in the future. It is not on the schedule for this trip,” the senior official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told reporters in a call on Friday.

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Speaking to reporters before departing for Asia late on Friday night, President Trump said he would like to meet Kim, but he was not sure if it would happen.

“He knows I’m going there,” Trump said, referring to the North Korean leader.

Speaking later aboard Air Force One regarding a possible meeting with Kim, Trump said: “I’d be open 100 percent. I get along very well with Kim Jong Un.”

Trump told me of wanting to meet with Kim Jong Un on his Asia trip: “he knows I’m going there.” https://t.co/zqkyELOsol

— Kellie Meyer (@KellieMeyerNews) October 25, 2025

South Korea’s unification minister had said earlier on Friday that he believed there was a “considerable” chance that Trump would meet Kim while he is in the South Korean city of Gyeongju next week for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Forum.

North Korea appears “to be paying attention to the United States, and various signs … suggest a considerable possibility of a meeting”, Unification Minister Chung Dong-young told reporters, before urging the two leaders not to let the opportunity “slip away”.

“I don’t want to miss even a one percent chance,” said Chung, whose ministry handles Seoul’s fraught relations with Pyongyang.

“They need to make a decision,” he said.

While the meeting between Trump and Kim now looks less likely, the White House confirmed on Thursday that Trump will be meeting Chinese President Xi Jinping before he returns to the US from his multi-day visit to Southeast Asia.

Trump will begin his trip in Malaysia this weekend, where he is due to attend the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) summit.

A number of other high-profile leaders from non-ASEAN countries will also be present in Malaysia, including Japan’s new Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, and South African President Cyril Ramaphosa.

‘Fond memories’

Trump and Kim met three times during Trump’s first presidency, with both leaders expressing an interest in meeting again in recent months.

Kim said last month he was open to talks with the US if Washington stops insisting his country give up its nuclear weapons programme.

The North Korean leader also commented on Trump, saying: ” Personally, I still have fond memories of US President Trump.”

Kim’s comments come after both Trump and South Korean leader Lee Jae Myung expressed their willingness to meet with their North Korean counterpart during a meeting at the White House in August.

“Someday, I’ll see him. I look forward to seeing him. He was very good with me,” Trump said at the time, adding that he knew Kim, whose family has ruled North Korea for three generations, “better than anybody, almost, other than his sister”.

Lee, who has been vocally supportive of thawing relations with his country’s northern neighbour, said at the same meeting that he hoped the US president would “build a Trump Tower” in North Korea “so that I can play golf there”.

North Korea fired multiple short-range ballistic missiles earlier this week, as Seoul made preparations to host the APEC summit next week.