Washington, Oct 13 (IANS) US President Donald Trump kept open the possibility of meeting North Korean leader Kim Jong-un during his Asia trip next month, when he is due to attend the ASEAN summit in Manila and the APEC summit in Shenzhen, China.
“I may, yeah,” Trump told reporters at the White House before boarding Marine One, when asked whether he planned to meet Kim during the trip.
He did not say where or when such a meeting could take place.
Trump is scheduled to take part in the ASEAN summit in the Philippine capital on November 16 before going to Shenzhen for APEC, which runs from November 17 to 19, according to the New York Post, which cited the White House.
In China, Trump is expected to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping for the third time this year.
The President has spoken often about wanting to see Kim again. In August, he told reporters he expected to meet the North Korean leader later this year. “Yeah, I will be,” he said then, when asked if he planned to meet Kim in 2026.
The Wall Street Journal reported in August, citing US officials, that Trump had pressed aides to arrange a meeting as early as this autumn, with the APEC summit in Shenzhen floated as a possible venue.
Neither Washington nor Pyongyang has announced a meeting. [VERIFY: any North Korean (KCNA) or White House statement since August]
Trump met Kim three times in his first term. In June 2018 in Singapore, he became the first sitting US President to meet a North Korean leader, and the two agreed to work towards the complete denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula.
Their second summit, in Hanoi in February 2019, ended without an agreement.
In June 2019, Trump briefly stepped into North Korea at the Demilitarized Zone in Panmunjom, the first sitting US President to set foot in the country.
Talks stalled after that, and North Korea has continued to expand its nuclear and missile programmes.
Trump made the remarks on Monday before leaving for a campaign rally in Youngstown, Ohio.
–IANS
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