Trump Says He May Meet Kim Jong Un. Hours Earlier, North Korea Fired Missiles

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President Trump says he may sit down with North Korea’s Kim Jong Un next month. On the same day, North Korea fired a volley of ballistic missiles into the sea.

The two events, both on Monday, sum up the challenge in one picture. Trump wants to talk. Kim keeps building weapons.

What Trump said

Trump was asked about Kim on Monday as he left for a campaign rally in Youngstown, Ohio. According to ANI, he said: “I may…That’ll be exciting, won’t it? But I get along with him.”

The Washington Examiner reported that the possible meeting would come during Trump’s trip to Asia next month. Trump is scheduled to attend the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) leaders’ meeting in Shenzhen, China, on Nov. 18–19, according to ANI and South Korea’s Seoul Economic Daily.

No meeting has been set. The White House has not released an agenda or a location.

What North Korea did

The same Monday, North Korea fired several ballistic missiles toward its eastern waters from near Pyongyang, the Associated Press reported, citing South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff.

One missile flew more than 900 kilometers, about 559 miles. Japan said it tracked at least two missiles launched 17 minutes apart. The second flew more than 910 kilometers on what Japan called an “irregular” path. Japanese officials have used that term for hypersonic weapons, according to the AP. The missiles came down outside Japan’s exclusive economic zone, and no damage was reported.

This was not a one-off. The AP said it followed an Oct. 3 test of what North Korea called a hypersonic intermediate-range missile, plus other launches, live-fire drills and a new warship.

South Korea’s national security office called on the North to stop, saying the launches violate U.N. Security Council resolutions. Japan filed a protest.

Kim has slammed the door before

Trump met Kim three times in his first term, ANI noted. Those meetings lowered the temperature, but they did not end North Korea’s nuclear program.

According to the AP, talks have been stuck since they broke down in 2019. Kim has turned down Trump’s calls to restart them. Pyongyang says Washington must drop its “hostile” policy and stop insisting on denuclearization as a condition for talks. Kim has also called South Korea a “permanent enemy” and cut off contact with Seoul.

A goodwill gesture already made

Trump has already offered Kim something. In August, he ordered a big cut to the yearly joint military drills with South Korea, ANI reported. He cited the cost and his relationship with Kim.

In a Truth Social post quoted by ANI, Trump wrote that he told Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth “to substantially reduce the Joint Military Exercises!” He called the drills “totally inappropriate and hostile” toward North Korea. According to Yonhap, cited by ANI, the main summer exercise was cut from 11 days to five and ended nearly a week early.

ANI said the move was widely seen as a goodwill gesture toward Kim. Trump, for his part, pointed to the cost of the drills to American taxpayers.

The bottom line

Trump’s instinct to talk to adversaries is not weakness. Past presidents spent decades on strategic patience and got a North Korea with more nukes, not fewer. Trump’s first-term summits at least stopped the talk of “fire and fury” and opened a direct line between the two leaders.

But Monday’s missiles are a reminder of who Kim is. He tests weapons while the world watches, and he wants America to drop the one demand that matters: getting rid of his nukes. Any meeting should come with clear terms, not more free concessions like the scaled-back drills.

If Trump can bring Kim back to the table without giving away America’s leverage or South Korea’s security, that would be a real win. Peace through strength means talking from a position of strength, and keeping it.

Sources