October 29, 2025
SEOUL – South Korea’s Unification Minister Chung Dong-young said Tuesday that Pyongyang is likely to express its stance on a possible summit with the US through Kim Yo-jong, the powerful sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, by Wednesday.
Chung, however, cautioned that nothing is certain yet, amid mounting speculation that Kim and US President Donald Trump could meet, with the latter set to arrive in South Korea on Wednesday ahead of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit this week in Gyeongju, North Gyeongsang Province.
Chung made the comments during the National Assembly’s audit of the Foreign Affairs and Unification Committee, which involved officials from both the Unification and Foreign Ministries.
As the APEC summit approaches, speculation over a possible Kim-Trump summit has been growing. The US president has repeatedly expressed his willingness to meet Kim, saying he would “love to meet with him if he’d like to meet.” According to the Washington-based outlet The Hill, Trump said he would also be willing to extend his stay in South Korea to meet Kim, speaking before boarding Air Force One for Japan in Malaysia on Monday, as part of his Asia tour.
Chung said that Trump has offered almost everything he can, and that the decision now lies with Kim, adding he may be weighing several strategic factors.
“This could be now or later, Panmunjom or Pyongyang — depending on whether he can overcome the trauma of his previous meeting with Trump in Hanoi in 2019,” Chung said. “In any case, if a meeting is to take place, the North must express its position by today or tomorrow.”
Chung also underscored the importance of creating a turning point in inter-Korean relations through the possible meeting, saying, “I think the issue here is more that it’s necessary than whether it’s possible.”
“We must move beyond the six years of hostility, confrontation and disconnection, and shift toward a new phase of dialogue and negotiation between North Korea and the US, and reconciliation and cooperation between the two Koreas — opening an era of peaceful coexistence,” he said.
If Kim meets Trump, Pyongyang’s priorities would be recognition as a nuclear state by the US, a stabilization of US-North Korea relations, and the lifting of sanctions, Chung added.
Chung, meanwhile, confirmed there have been no discussions between Seoul and Washington about a potential Trump-Kim meeting, stressing that the nuclear issue should be viewed as one between Washington and Pyongyang.
Foreign Minister Cho Hyun offered a similar view on the possible Kim-Trump meeting, saying that while he could not give a specific probability, “the door remains open.”
Asked whether Trump’s willingness to meet Kim despite Kim’s remarks that any meeting should be held “without preconditions” — widely seen as implying that the North will not abandon its nuclear ambitions — signified US recognition of North Korea as a nuclear power, Cho said that would be an overinterpretation.
“That’s not the case. It should only be understood as acknowledging that North Korea possesses nuclear weapons,” he said.
Cho added that Washington is unlikely to recognize Pyongyang as a nuclear state even if a meeting takes place, noting that the US has long upheld and maintained the global nonproliferation regime under the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons.
Trump’s upcoming visit will mark his first trip to South Korea since 2019, when he met then-President Moon Jae-in and held a surprise meeting with Kim Jong-un at Panmunjom in the Demilitarized Zone separating the two Koreas.