US and South Korean officials see little chance of a Trump-Kim meeting this year, with no response from Pyongyang to Washington’s outreach
The November 18–19 APEC summit in Shenzhen remains a possible venue, but no concrete arrangements have been announced
North Korea wants changes in Washington’s approach, including potential sanctions relief, while previous Trump-Kim meetings failed to produce a lasting nuclear agreement
US and South Korean officials see little chance of a meeting between President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un this year, as Pyongyang has shown limited interest in resuming negotiations over its nuclear programme, Reuters reported on Friday, citing five people familiar with the situation.
The United States has received no response from North Korea about holding a meeting, and time is running out before the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Shenzhen, China, on November 18–19, where the two leaders could meet, Reuters reported. A regional summit in the Philippines next month had also been considered a possible opportunity.
The latest assessment marks a shift from expectations earlier this year, when Trump expressed confidence that he could meet Kim during his planned Asian diplomatic engagements. No meeting has been announced, and officials familiar with the discussions said Pyongyang had made no move indicating that it was preparing for talks.
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Trump Plays Down Prospects
Trump said on Monday that he was uncertain whether a meeting would take place. Asked by reporters at the White House whether he expected to meet Kim in China next month, he said: “Oh, I don't know. I don't know.”
“I get along with him very well,” Trump added. “And I'm not sure that anybody's asking for a meeting.”
The remarks were more cautious than his comments in August, when Trump said he planned to meet Kim later this year and suggested that the North Korean leader had responded to his outreach.
South Korea's intelligence agency told lawmakers late last month that there was a 50% chance of the two leaders meeting on the sidelines of the APEC summit, according to Reuters. But Seoul's ambassador to Washington, Kang Kyung-wha, said last week that no concrete progress had been made towards arranging a summit.
A White House official said US policy towards North Korea had not changed and that Trump remained open to meeting Kim without preconditions. “No meetings to announce at this time,” the official said, adding that the leaders would meet “at the appropriate time”.
Pyongyang Sets Conditions
North Korea has signalled that Trump's personal relationship with Kim may not be enough to revive diplomacy. State media has indicated that Pyongyang would set demanding conditions for a bilateral summit, potentially including sanctions relief.
In August, Kim's sister Kim Yo Jong acknowledged the leaders' “excellent” personal relationship but rejected Washington's attempt to present a reduction in joint US-South Korean military exercises as a goodwill gesture. She said the exercises remained aggressive and that US policy towards North Korea was still hostile.
The dispute reflects a wider gap between Washington's stated objective of containing North Korea's nuclear programme and Pyongyang's insistence that its security interests must be addressed. North Korea has continued developing its nuclear and ballistic-missile capabilities, while the two sides have made no meaningful progress towards a new agreement. Meanwhile, North Korea has appeared to be looking for a significant public signal from Washington, suggesting that scaling back military exercises has not been sufficient.
A Narrow Window
The possibility of a meeting has not been entirely ruled out. US Ambassador to South Korea Michelle Steel said on Wednesday that she did not know when the leaders might meet, but any arrangement could come at short notice.
“If it happens, then it's going to happen the next day or within a couple of days' notice,” Steel said at an event in Seoul.
Trump and Kim met three times during Trump's first term, including summits in Singapore in 2018 and Hanoi in 2019, and a meeting at the Korean Demilitarised Zone in 2019. Those encounters were historic but produced no lasting agreement on North Korea's nuclear programme.
The two Koreas remain technically at war under the 1950–53 armistice, and the United States maintains approximately 28,500 troops in South Korea. With the APEC summit approaching and no confirmed diplomatic contact, the prospect of another Trump-Kim meeting increasingly depends on whether Pyongyang signals that it is willing to engage.
