Worries rise in Seoul after Trump boasts about Kim Jong-un relationship

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Worries rise in Seoul after Trump boasts about Kim Jong-un relationship

Published: 13 Apr. 2025, 15:29 Updated: 13 Apr. 2025, 16:45

SEO JI-EUN
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Audio report: written by reporters, read by AI

U.S. President Donald Trump, left, meets with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un at the border village of Panmunjom in the demilitarized zone on June 30, 2019. [AP/YONHAP]

U.S. President Donald Trump reportedly reaffirmed his personal rapport with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un during a phone call with Korean acting President Han Duck-soo on last week, stoking fresh worries in Seoul that Trump could once again bypass traditional diplomacy in favor of one-on-one summits — an approach possibly at the odds with Seoul's preferences.

During the 28-minute conversation on Tuesday night, Trump repeated a familiar claim that he “got along great” with Kim, a talking point he has frequently emphasized since his first presidential run, a source familiar with the call told the JoongAng Ilbo, an affiliate of the Korea JoongAng Daily.

In a post-call press release, Han’s office said both sides had agreed to maintain strong coordination on denuclearization.

Han reportedly expressed “hope to coordinate in a way that clearly demonstrates that the determination of South Korea, the United States and the international community for North Korea’s denuclearization is far stronger than North Korea’s desire to possess nuclear weapons.”

Trump reportedly responded with a supportive “sure,” according to the source.

Acting President Han Duck-soo, left, and U.S. President Donald Trump are pictured in this combined image. [YONHAP]

Though Trump’s social media post summarizing the call made no mention of North Korea, Han’s office emphasized coordination regarding North Korea policy, reaffirmation of the South Korea-U.S. military alliance and trilateral cooperation with Japan.

Observers noted the discrepancy as a reflection of Seoul’s heightened sensitivity to being sidelined — especially given that Trump recently expressed plans to reach out to Kim, referring to North Korea as a “big nuclear nation” and its leader as a “smart guy.”

Although North Korea is not recognized as a nuclear-weapon state under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, Trump has previously called it a “nuclear power” or “nuclear nation,” prompting fears that his administration may pivot toward an arms control deal that tacitly accepts the North’s arsenal.

Experts worry that such a shift would leave South Korea vulnerable.

Their concerns stem in part from Trump’s earlier attempts at direct diplomacy with Kim, which culminated in high-profile but ultimately fruitless summits in 2018 and 2019. Despite its historic optics, the meetings yielded no concrete steps toward denuclearization.

“For a Trump administration eager to show progress with North Korea, pursuing an arms control arrangement with Pyongyang might be of interest — even if it would mean de facto acceptance of North Korea's nuclear status, and even if such an arrangement left in place the North Korea's nuclear and missile threats against the South Korea and Japan,” said Evans Revere, former U.S. principal deputy assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs.

Analysts in Seoul warn that repeated references to Kim may be “a kind of bubble” driven more by Trump’s desire to dominate headlines than by a clear strategy — but also that the results may diverge significantly from South Korea’s goals of complete, verifiable denuclearization.

Sung Ki-young, senior research fellow at the Seoul-based Institute for National Security Strategy, said the chances of a successful summit are low.

“Even if a Trump-Kim summit were to occur, I believe the prospect of it producing a positive outcome, as we would hope, is very dim,” he said during a recent forum at the Korea Institute for National Unification.

Sung also flagged the potential use of North Korea policy as a regional bargaining chip.

“There’s a scenario — admittedly a troubling one — in which Trump uses a summit or deal with Kim as leverage against other stakeholders on the peninsula, including China, South Korea and Japan,” he said. “Given Trump's past remarks that are rarely heard from past American presidents — such as that America's allies 'have taken advantage' of Washington more than their 'enemies' — that kind of hypothetical scenario is something we should at least consider.”

While joint statements from formal summits, such as the U.S.-Japan or South Korea-U.S.-Japan trilateral meetings, continue to emphasize complete denuclearization, Sung said the people actually shaping Trump’s North Korea policy “very clearly describe that goal as unrealistic.”

BY SEO JI-EUN [[email protected]]