"Will Meet Kim Jong-un by End of Year… North Korea Has 57 Nuclear Weapons"

[Anchor]

U.S. President Donald Trump has directly stated that he will meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un within this year. With a little over two months left until the U.S. midterm elections and the possibility of wrapping up the war with Iran in victory growing increasingly slim, many analyze that he is trying to use diplomatic achievements with North Korea as a breakthrough.

For our first news today (August 20), Washington correspondent Lee Hanseok has the report.

[Reporter]

When asked if he expects to meet Chairman Kim Jong-un within the year, U.S. President Trump answered without hesitation.

[Trump / U.S. President: (Do you expect to meet with Chairman Kim Jong-un by the end of the year?) Yes, I do.]

If the summit takes place, it will be about seven years since their meeting at Panmunjom in June 2019.

The APEC summit to be held in Shenzhen, China, this coming November is considered a likely occasion.

Following his previous directive to significantly scale back the South Korea-U.S. joint military exercises, President Trump instructed his aides to push for a North Korea-U.S. summit this fall, laying the groundwork for the resumption of dialogue between Washington and Pyongyang.

Regarding whether they have exchanged personal letters with Chairman Kim, he said he could not comment, but repeatedly emphasized their close relationship.

In particular, Trump revealed North Korea's specific nuclear stockpile for the first time.

[Trump / U.S. President: Kim has 57 very powerful nuclear weapons. That should never have been allowed to happen in the first place. It was something that should never have been permitted.]

This part can be interpreted as acknowledging North Korea's possession of nuclear weapons as an accomplished fact.

While criticizing that North Korea came to possess nuclear weapons due to the previous Joe Biden administration, Trump suggested that he can manage the North Korean nuclear threat well, saying things will be fine because he and Chairman Kim get along well.

Attention is focusing on what impact President Trump's sweeping moves to swiftly restore North Korea-U.S. summit diplomacy will bring to the security landscape of the Korean Peninsula.

(Camera Reporter: Oh Jung-shik, Video Editor: Chae Chul-ho)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.