President Donald Trump confirmed he will not meet with North Korea’s leader Kim Jong Un during his trip to South Korea and blamed timing.
Trump made his comments to South Korean counterpart, President Lee Jae-myung, adding that he remained committed to peace on the Korean Peninsula.
“I know Kim Jong Un very well. We get along very well. We really weren’t able to work out timing. We have – President Xi is coming tomorrow, and it was – that was something that obviously is very important to the world, to all of us,” the president said during a bilateral meeting in Gyeongju.
Trump said his plans to meet with China’s leader Xi Jinping were the focus of the visit.
Trump previously had expressed openness to extending his trip to meet with Kim, but he vowed Wednesday that he will be “working on this very hard” with Lee and his team.
“The Korean peninsula, and I know you are officially at war, but we will see what we can do to get that all straightened out,” he said.
South Korea’s Lee praised Trump for being willing to have dialogue with the North Korean leader, saying he hoped Kim would see Trump’s “true heart and intention.”
“I am very happy that you are willing and open to having a dialog with Chairman Kim, and the posture itself is a lot for us,” Lee said.
Some context: Lee, who took office in June, has emphasized easing tensions on the Korean Peninsula while holding onto the longtime goal of denuclearizing North Korea. He takes a more open stance of dialogue with North Korea than his conservative predecessor who took a much more hardline approach to Pyongyang.
