Trump Says He Plans to Meet Kim Jong Un, Cites North Korea's Nuclear Arsenal

US President Donald Trump said on Wednesday that he intends to meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, while reiterating that the isolated nation possesses a significant nuclear arsenal.

Speaking to reporters during a tour of the helipad under construction on the White House's south lawn, Trump said, "I know Kim Jong Un very well, and he's going to be fine as long as we have a smart president." He added that his rapport with Kim is a positive development, saying, "The fact that I get along with him — that's a good thing, not a bad thing."

Trump then referenced the scale of North Korea's nuclear program, stating, "He has 57 very powerful nuclear weapons." He criticized past US policy, saying, "They should have never allowed it. If I were president, I wouldn't have allowed it. But he's got them."

Independent estimates of North Korea's arsenal have varied. In June, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute suggested the country may have assembled around 60 warheads and possesses enough fissile material to build at least 30 more.

The announcement comes days after Trump ordered Pentagon officials to shorten joint military exercises with South Korea. In a social media post on Sunday, he described the drills as sending a message to Pyongyang that was "totally inappropriate and hostile, to a Country that, as long as Donald J. Trump has been President, has been unthreatening and respectful."

The relationship between the two leaders has had sharp fluctuations. During Trump's first term, Kim referred to him as a "mentally deranged U.S. dotard" and claimed to have a "nuclear button" on his desk. However, the pair met face-to-face in 2018 and 2019, including a brief encounter at the demilitarized zone where Trump became the first sitting US president to step onto North Korean soil.