Ignored? Trump returns to the US without meeting Kim

The American president spoke several times about meeting with the North Korean leader during his recent trip to Asia. With new allies, Kim would have left Trump unanswered.

United States President Donald Trump left South Korea after completing his whirlwind tour of East Asia without achieving one of his main stated goals: a meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.

The American claimed this Wednesday (29/10) that the meeting did not take place due to scheduling problems. In talks with South Korean President Lee Jae-myung, Trump said he was concerned that “North Korea’s nuclear development poses a significant threat to the security of the Korean Peninsula and Northeast Asia.”

Trump, however, left the door open for dialogue with Pyongyang by stating that he still has a “good relationship” with Kim and that he is ready to meet with the North Korean leader “at any time”.

Experts, however, point out that the global geopolitical situation has changed drastically since the two leaders met in Singapore, Hanoi and the Demilitarized Zone between the two Koreas during Trump’s first term. Kim has since cultivated a close military and commercial relationship with Russia.

“Kim has powerful new friends”

Although Trump had repeatedly stated before arriving in South Korea that he hoped to meet with Kim, foreign policy professor Choo Jae-woo of Kyung Hee University in Seoul said a meeting between the two leaders was more than unlikely.

“That would never happen,” Choo said. “The rules of the game have changed, and while I wouldn’t go so far as to say this was a slight to the American, Kim certainly has other powerful new friends she can count on.”

These friendships were expressed unequivocally in the days leading up to Trump’s arrival in the region, when Russian President Vladimir Putin greeted North Korean Foreign Minister Choe Son-hui in Moscow on Monday. The Russian leader was filmed asking Choe to convey his greetings to Kim.

Earlier that day, Choe had said during talks with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov that relations between the two countries had been “raised to a new level” and that Pyongyang was committed to supporting Russia’s national sovereignty and territorial security.

Russian Foreign Minister Serguei Lavrov alongside his North Korean counterpart Choe Son-hui in North Korea | Russian Foreign Ministry/REUTERS

On Wednesday, North Korea announced that it had tested a series of strategic sea-to-land missiles against targets in the Yellow Sea. The North Korean military stated that these weapons were capable of carrying nuclear warheads.

Last week, ahead of Trump’s visit to the region, Pyongyang carried out its first ballistic missile test since Lee Jae-myung took office in June.

In a final indication of where North Korea sees its future, North Korean state media reported that a high-level delegation of Russian economic experts arrived in Pyongyang on Wednesday to promote cooperation in trade, economics and science.

Trump’s approaches were ignored

Trump’s repeated offers to meet with Kim — most recently on Monday, when he told reporters aboard the presidential Air Force One plane en route to Tokyo that he would “love” to talk to the North Korean leader during his tour of Asia — have been met with silence.

“Personally, I don’t believe that the North Korean side ever had the intention of agreeing to a meeting between the two leaders,” says Yakov Zinberg, professor of international relations at Kokushikan University in Tokyo, originally from Saint Petersburg, Russia.

Zinberg believes that Trump’s advisors wanted the meeting to happen in an attempt to generate friction between North Korea and Russia, something that, as he said, “would always be difficult to achieve”. “The Kremlin knew exactly what was happening and used its own tactics to stop it, organizing parallel meetings between the North Korean foreign minister and the Russian president in Moscow.”

South Koreans observe North Korean missile test | Ahn Young-joon/AP Photo/picture alliance

Unlike previous years, North Korea has been demonstrating to the US, South Korea and Japan that it is more secure in its international position “because it has a superpower behind it”, adds Zinberg. He highlighted advanced weapons and technologies – as well as fuel and food – that until recently were out of reach due to international sanctions, but which are now available to Pyongyang thanks to Moscow’s support.

“The message is that North Korea is no longer alone, that it is a power and that it no longer needs to respond to Trump’s speeches,” said Zinberg.

Choo noted that this stance creates challenges for the US president. What price must he pay to bring Kim back to the negotiating table? Would this price be too high for Washington’s allies in the region?

“I think Trump is already thinking about the next step, the steps he can take to reach a settlement in the war in Ukraine and then make some kind of treaty on the Peninsula [Coreana] so he can win a Nobel Peace Prize,” Choo said.

Would Trump recognize North Korea’s nuclear status?

The fear is that the bait he is willing to offer Kim is the recognition of North Korea as a nuclear state. It’s something Trump hinted at to reporters before leaving for Asia. “I think they’re some kind of nuclear power. I mean, I know how many weapons they have. I know everything about them.”

Recognizing Pyongyang as a nuclear power would put an abrupt and effective end to the long-standing position of the United States and its allies that North Korea needs to abolish its nuclear arsenal for international sanctions to be lifted and for the country to reintegrate into the global community.

However, recognizing North Korea as a nuclear power would pose even greater security risks to South Korea, which does not have nuclear weapons, and neighboring Japan, in addition to, most likely, triggering an arms race across the region.

“For North Korea, this would be a huge prize and one that could bring Kim back into negotiations,” Choo said. “But from South Korea’s perspective at the current time, this would not be an acceptable concession before other agreements and guarantees are in place.”

Originally published by DW on 10/31/2025

By Julian Ryall