Trump says he will meet Kim Jong-un “one day” before the South Korean summit

President Donald Trump touted his relationship with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and said the two will meet “one day” – just ahead of the White House summit with South Korea’s new president Lee Jae Myung.

During Trump’s tenure, the president met with Kim several times, including in Singapore in 2018, and then in 2019 two denuclearization negotiations across Vietnam and North Korea.

“I have a great relationship with North Korea’s Kim Jong-un,” Trump told reporters at the White House on Monday. “I mean, a lot of people would say, oh, that’s horrible. No, it’s good. Actually, I’ll meet him one day. I look forward to seeing him. He’s nice with me. We have two meetings – we have two mountaintops. We get along well. We get along well.”

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“I know him better than you,” Trump said. “I know him better than anyone except his sister. His sister knows him very well. No, I know him very well. I get along with him. You know, I shouldn’t say I really like him because if I do that, I’m killed in the fake news media. But I get along with him very well.”

In Trump’s first administration, negotiations with Kim and Kim collapsed in exchange for closing North Korea’s major nuclear complex when the president refused to join Kim Jong Il’s sanctions relief request.

Although Trump’s current administration has shown continued interest in negotiations with North Korea, Kim’s sister Kim Jong said in July that the White House pressure on North Korea on denuclearization would be interpreted as “just a ridicule.”

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Kim said in July that the White House pressure on North Korea’s denuclearization would be interpreted as “just ridicule.” (Jorge Silva/Pool Photo via AP, file)

“The fact that North Korea’s recognition of the irreversible status of nuclear weapons and its capabilities and geopolitical environment fundamentally changes this difficult fact should be a prerequisite for predicting and thinking about everything in the future,” Kim Yo-joong said in a statement from North Korea’s state news agency KCNA in a July statement.

Meanwhile, Trump also shot after South Korean allies a few hours before Lee planned to arrive at the White House – weeks after the two agreed to a trade deal.

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President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un took a walk after their first meeting at the Sofitel Legend Metropole Hanoi Hotel in Hanoi on February 28, 2019. (Evan Vucci/AP)

“What happened in South Korea? It looks like a purge or revolution. We can’t have that thing and do business there,” Trump said in a social media post Monday morning.

Trump told reporters Monday morning that his remarks stemmed from media reports about the July raid on the church and Osan Air Force Base. He told reporters that he was not sure about the accuracy of media coverage, but he would question Lee’s questions about the matter because he would not “represent for it.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.