SEOUL, South Korea — Days after he ordered the Pentagon to scale back joint military exercises with South Korea, President Trump said Wednesday he would meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un later this year.
Speaking to reporters at the White House, Mr. Trump also confirmed that Pyongyang has 57 of what he called “very powerful” nuclear weapons in its arsenal. While analysts have long estimated North Korea possesses 50 to 60 atomic warheads, the exact number had not been publicly disclosed.
“If I were president, I wouldn’t have allowed it. But he’s got them,” Mr. Trump said.
The president told reporters that he has a good relationship with the North Korean leader.
“I get along with him well,” he said. “The fact that I get along with him, that’s a good thing, not a bad thing.”
Mr. Trump did not provide a date or location for the expected meeting with Mr. Kim.
“I know Kim Jong-un very well. He’s going to be fine, as long as we have a smart president,” he said. “If we have a dumb president, then he’s probably not going to be so fine.”
Kim Yo Jong, Mr. Kim’s powerful sister, said in a statement carried by North Korean state media that while both men have an “excellent” relationship, Washington’s “hostile” policy toward Pyongyang remains a hurdle.
“The United States and its followers are vigorously carrying out hostile military activities against [North Korea] even at this very moment,” Ms. Kim said.
Mr. Trump’s comments Wednesday came just days after a surprise, last-minute cutback of joint South Korean-American military drills — a move that generated mixed reactions across the government of the strategically located U.S. ally.
South Korean President Lee Jae-myung’s immediate reaction to Mr. Trump’s late Sunday night missive was to confirm progress on one of his own administration’s priorities: the already underway shift of South Korean forces from Washington’s to Seoul’s command.
His national security adviser, meanwhile, deployed a boilerplate, pro-alliance statement.
The Ministry of National Defense went silent, while the Ministry of Foreign Affairs noted that Mr. Trump gave Seoul no notice.
The Ministry of Unification struck a more upbeat note, couching the Trump move as a potential overture to restart talks with North Korea rather than a rebuff of South Korea.
Mr. Trump announced Sunday on his Truth Social page that he had ordered the Pentagon to “substantially reduce the Joint Military Exercises.”
The news hit Korea on Monday, the first day of the 10-day Ulchi Freedom Shield joint war games, held annually.
Mr. Lee’s response was swift.
“We must proceed smoothly with the transfer of wartime operational control within [my] term, in accordance with the government’s original plan,” Mr. Lee told his Cabinet.
In the event of war, Korean forces are postured to fight jointly under U.S. command. Mr. Lee pledged during his election campaign to transfer “Wartime OPCON” to Seoul by the end of his term in 2030.
The issue has been running hot and cold for two decades, as different Seoul administrations apply brakes or accelerators.
Some media analysts speculated that one reason for the war games’ cutback was to slow that process. Korean systems and personnel are undergoing a series of stress tests, with Ulchi Freedom Shield being the latest.
Other arms of government reverted to custom.
“Based on the strong South Korea-U.S. alliance, our government has been continuing coordination with the U.S. side on combined exercises and drills between South Korea and the U.S.,” National Security Adviser Win Sung-lac told reporters Tuesday.
Foreign Minister Cho Hyun contradicted the “coordination” claim a day later.
“Neither our government nor U.S. officials knew what President Trump wrote on his Truth Social,” he told the National Assembly’s Committee on Foreign Affairs and Unification. “We were not notified in advance.”
However, he added his belief that Defense Minister Ahn Gyu-back was in “close consultation” with the U.S.
On Tuesday, U.S. Forces Korea Commander General Xavier Brunson paid a 20-minute visit to the Ministry of National Defense, where he reportedly spoke to Mr. Ahn. Gen. Brunson declined to answer reporters’ questions.
The drills, set to run through Aug. 27, will now conclude on Friday.
Mr. Trump made history as the first American leader to meet a North Korean leader in 2018, but walked out of a second summit in 2019.
Since then, despite Mr. Trump’s claims of chumminess with Mr. Kim, Pyongyang-Washington relations have frozen solid.
Pyongyang-Seoul relations have also gone cold — relations the Lee administration has made clear it wants to warm up.
On Wednesday, addressing the National Assembly’s Committee on Foreign Affairs and Unification, Unification Minister Chung Dong-young said “I hope this leads to dialog between the U.S. and North Korea, and further extends to improved inter-Korean ties.”
Others fear Mr. Trump is frustrated by the lack of momentum on a $350 billion South Korean investment pledge made last July in the face of U.S. tariffs.
On Wednesday, Finance Minister Koo Yun-cheol told the American Chamber of Commerce in Korea that Seoul was “not deliberately delaying the process,” but that it and Washington were moving “step by step.”
Seoul, too, is unhappy about U.S. non-movement on providing nuclear submarine technologies, as Mr. Trump promised Mr. Lee during their October 2025 summit.
“The South Koreans were anticipating a nuclear submarine deal, but that is not going anywhere,” said Yang Uk, a security specialist at Seoul’s Asan Institute. “The U.S. is not happy with what Korea offers and Korea is not happy with what the U.S. offers, it’s kind of a stalemate.”
In 2018, before his first meeting with Mr Kim, Mr. Trump also unilaterally cancelled the U.S.-South Korean military drills.
Pundits say Mr. Kim in 2026 holds far better cards than he did in 2018-2019, thanks to his 2024 alliance with Russia.
“These days, Moscow is offering cash, energy and advanced military technology — effectively making international sanctions irrelevant — in exchange for North Korean troops and conventional weapons to be used against Ukraine,” Leonid Petrov, a North Korea watcher and visiting scholar at Australian National University, wrote on Facebook.
Mr. Kim is also being courted by Chinese President Xi Jinping, who honored him in Beijing in 2025 and made a state visit to Pyongyang this year.
Pyongyang officialdom is not hailing a renewal of Kim-Trump good vibes.
On Wednesday, the state-run Korean Central News Agency wrote, “The drill poses the most immediate and open threat” to North Korea and regional security.
It did not mention Mr. Trump’s Sunday intervention on the exercises, nor contacts between him and Mr. Kim.
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