On August 16, President Donald Trump posted an old photograph of himself and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un taken at the Demilitarized Zone in 2019. Hours later, Trump ordered the Pentagon to scale back joint military exercises with South Korea, citing his "very good relationship" with Kim as one reason.
The Wall Street Journal reported that Trump was pushing aides to arrange a face-to-face meeting with Kim as early as November on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Shenzhen, China. The proposed timing would place the summit roughly two weeks after the November 3 midterm elections.
Trump told reporters on August 18 that Kim Jong Un had responded to his request for a conversation, saying "I understand him. He understands me." A day later, however, Kim Yo Jong, the sister of Kim Jong Un, said the reduced drills changed nothing and denied that any direct communication between the two leaders had taken place. North Korea launched approximately 10 short-range ballistic missiles toward the sea the following day.
North Korea has signaled that its nuclear weapons will not be subject to negotiation. In 2023, Pyongyang amended its constitution to make its nuclear arsenal a permanent basic law of the state. Kim said last September that he saw no reason to avoid dialogue with Washington if it dropped its denuclearization demand, but that he would never trade away the arsenal to escape sanctions.
The war in Ukraine and shifting security alignments may shape any future engagement. A July report from The Foundation for Defense of Democracies documented more than 600 instances of cooperation between China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea between 2019 and 2025. Whether Trump's summit push is meant to fit into a wider attempt to loosen that alignment remains unconfirmed.
