US President Donald Trump asserted on Monday that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has engaged with his diplomatic outreach following his order directing the US military to scale back joint field operations with South Korea.
While addressing reporters inside the Oval Office, Trump pushed back when a journalist questioned why Kim had failed to reply to his outreach. Trump countered by asking, “How do you know he hasn’t responded?"
When pressed again on whether contact had occurred, Trump confirmed: “Um, yeah he has." While describing the current stage of dialogue with Kim as "very positive," the president refrained from providing additional details.
He noted, "Kim Jong-un has always treated me with great respect and we met on numerous occasions, actually two primary occasions, spoken and spent time. I understand him. He understands me."
These Oval Office remarks followed a post Trump published on Truth Social a day earlier, announcing that the United States would "substantially reduce" joint military maneuvers alongside South Korea, citing his "very good relationship" with the North Korean head of state.
"Based on my very good relationship with Kim Jong Un, of North Korea, I am not happy with the fact that the United States has, long ago, agreed to participate in Joint Military Exercises with South Korea. These exercises are not only costly, with much of these costs paid for by the United States of America (as usual!), but send a signal that is totally inappropriate and hostile, to a Country that, as long as Donald J. Trump has been President, has been unthreatening and respectful," Trump wrote in the social media post.
"Therefore, and based on the fact that it is too late to cancel, I have instructed Secretary of War, Pete Hegseth, to substantially reduce the Joint Military Exercises! While somewhat unrelated (?), I recently asked the President of South Korea if they would like to join us in the Denuclearization of the Islamic Republic of Iran, and they said, 'No thanks!'," the President added.
Trump has repeatedly departed from traditional American diplomatic protocol regarding North Korea's leader, whom he last visited in person in 2019.
During Trump's initial presidential term from 2017 to 2021, he held three summits with Kim - in Singapore, Hanoi, and along the Korean border. Despite these landmark meetings, the diplomatic efforts yielded no concrete results.
North Korea escalated its aggressive rhetoric in 2024 and has conducted dozens of missile test launches since that period.
Following the conclusion of Trump's first administration, Kim maintained an adversarial stance toward both South Korea and the United States.
In September 2025, Kim mentioned having "good memories" of Trump, while simultaneously asserting that his nation will "never lay down our nuclear weapons."