SEOUL, October 01 (AJP) - The White House said on September 30 that U.S. President Donald Trump remains open to talking with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un "without any preconditions," a move that has fueled speculation about renewed summitry when Trump travels to South Korea later this month for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit.
Responding to a question about whether Trump might seek a meeting with Kim during his visit to the southeastern city of Gyeongju on October 31~November 1, a White House official said: "President Trump remains open to talking with Kim Jong-un without any preconditions. U.S. policy on North Korea has not changed." The official also highlighted that Trump’s earlier meetings with Kim "stabilized the Korean Peninsula." It is the first time in Trump's second term that Washington has publicly stated it does not require conditions for renewed dialogue.
The announcement comes as Pyongyang has taken a noticeably warmer line toward Washington. On September 21, Kim told the Supreme People's Assembly that he saw no future for unification with South Korea, calling it a "U.S.-dependent colony," but added he was open to talks with the United States if Washington set aside its denuclearization demand. His remarks underscored a clear split in Pyongyang’s approach: shutting the door on inter-Korean dialogue while signaling potential space for engagement with Washington.
That message was reinforced days later when Vice Foreign Minister Kim Son-gyong addressed the United Nations General Assembly in New York, marking North Korea's first speech at the annual forum in seven years. He declared that Pyongyang would "never give up nuclear weapons under any circumstances" but said it was ready to cooperate with countries that treated it "in a friendly way."
Alongside these statements, Pyongyang has accelerated its diplomacy with Beijing and Moscow. Earlier in September, Kim traveled to Beijing for China’s 80th Victory Day parade, where he appeared on Tiananmen Square with Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin. He then held his first one-on-one summit with Xi in nearly seven years, with both sides declaring their ties "unshakable." North Korea’s Foreign Minister Choe Son-hui stayed behind in China afterward for additional talks.
Trump, meanwhile, has not hidden his interest in returning to personal diplomacy with Kim. During his first term, the two leaders met three times — in Singapore in June 2018, in Hanoi in February 2019, and at Panmunjom in June 2019. Trump has repeatedly expressed that he remembers those encounters positively, and Kim himself recently said he had a "good" memory of Trump.
reporter
Park Sae-jin
swatchsjp@ajunews.com
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