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U.S. strikes on Iran could lead to another Trump-Kim summit at Panmunjom, U.S. expert says

Published: 01 Jul. 2025, 11:32

Victor Cha, president of the Geopolitics and Foreign Policy Department at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), speaks during a panel discussion hosted by the Asan Institute for Policy Studies in Seoul on Oct. 17, 2024. [YONHAP]

The recent U.S. bombings on Iranian nuclear sites could open up the possibility of another meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, like their previous dramatic encounter at the inter-Korean border in 2019, a U.S. expert said Monday.

Victor Cha, president of the Geopolitics and Foreign Policy Department at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), raised the view, but said it will be under "a different context," as Kim would now want to negotiate security assurances rather than denuclearization.

"President Trump famously likes his friend in North Korea and he's scheduled to go to APEC in Korea at the end of October. Who knows what could happen there? He could go up to Panmunjom to meet the North Korean leader again," Cha said during a panel discussion hosted by the CSIS.

Panmunjom is the truce village inside the demilitarized zone separating the two Koreas. Trump and Kim met there in June 2019.

"But in a different context, because the show of military force by the United States may cause Kim to say, 'I need some insurance that that [bombing] doesn't happen to me,'" Cha said.

Cha was referring to the U.S. airstrikes, using B-2 bombers, on three key nuclear sites in Iran between June 21 and 22. Trump described the operation as successful and claimed the three sites were "obliterated."

South Korea is due to host the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit between late October and early November this year, with Trump expected to attend the multilateral meeting.

Cha said that the U.S. military action against Iran opens up the possibility for Washington and Pyongyang to resume the nuclear dialogue that remains stalled since the last talks in Hanoi in early 2019 collapsed without a deal.

"I think, if anything, they [North Koreans] are reaffirmed, that they have pursued the right path [of nuclear buildup]," Cha said. "One of the costs of our bombing of Iran is that we may have ended CVID with North Korea," he said.

CVID stands for complete, verifiable and irreversible denuclearization of North Korea, a central principle in nuclear talks with North Korea

Since he returned to the White House, Trump has called the North "a nuclear power," sparking speculation that the United States under his leadership may shift away from denuclearization talks and instead pursue an arms control deal with Pyongyang

"The lesson North Korea has taken away from this [is that] we need to keep our weapons to avoid massive ordnance penetrators being dropped on North Korea, like they were dropped on Iran," Cha said.

"So for all the wrong reasons, this strike against Iran may bring the North Koreans and the U.S. into negotiations," he said.

Yonhap