SEOUL, South Korea — President Donald Trump might get his summit with Kim Jong Un after all.
That's the view of South Korea's main spy agency, which said Tuesday there was a high possibility that North Korea and the United States will hold talks next year after months of apparent disinterest from Kim.
Trump has repeatedly expressed a desire to resume in-person diplomacy with the North Korean leader, but was unable to do so on his diplomatic tour of Asia last week.
South Korea’s National Intelligence Service assessed that Kim “has the intent to pursue dialogue with the United States and will seek contact if conditions become favorable,” according to Lee Sung-kwon, an opposition lawmaker who is also a secretary for the national assembly's intelligence committee.
The summit could be held after joint U.S.-South Korea military drills that are scheduled for March, said Lee, speaking after a briefing by the NIS. North Korea often criticizes such drills as rehearsals for invasion, which the U.S. and South Korea deny.
Lee said that the NIS briefed lawmakers that "North Korea is preparing behind the scenes for dialogue with the United States" and that Kim appeared to be calibrating his rhetorical tone with possible talks in mind.
Trump and Kim met three times during Trump’s first term as president, most recently in 2019, but denuclearization talks collapsed amid disagreements over U.S.-led sanctions on North Korea.
Since then, Kim has advanced his ballistic missile and nuclear programs and gained leverage through a security partnership with Russia that has included sending artillery and troops to aid Moscow in its war on Ukraine.
Kim and other North Korean officials have said repeatedly that they are not willing to negotiate with the U.S. unless Washington agrees to accept it as a nuclear power, with Pyongyang on Saturday dismissing the idea of denuclearization as a “pipe dream.”
Kim has also rebuffed overtures from South Korean President Lee Jae Myung, who favors greater engagement with the North than his conservative predecessor. Lee told the United Nations General Assembly in September that he was seeking a “phased solution” to the North Korean nuclear issue, “based on a cool-headed perception that denuclearization cannot be achieved in the short term.”
Ahead of Trump’s Asia trip there was speculation that he might meet with Kim, and Trump said he was willing to extend his five-day trip in order to schedule such a meeting.
“We never were able to talk because, look, I was so busy,” Trump told reporters last Thursday after meeting with Chinese leader Xi Jinping, adding that the Xi meeting was the main point of the trip.
“I think it would have been maybe disrespectful to the importance of this meeting” if he had added a meeting with Kim, he said.
But Trump said he would “come back” to Asia for a meeting with Kim, saying the two leaders have a “great relationship.”
Trump is set to return to Asia in April to visit Xi in China, he told reporters after their meeting in Busan, South Korea, their first since Trump returned to office in January.
Stella Kim reported from Seoul, and Jennifer Jett from Hong Kong.
