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Expert skeptical about possibility of Trump-Kim meeting during APEC gathering

Published: 22 Oct. 2025, 08:47

In this Feb. 27, 2019, file photo, U.S. President Donald Trump shakes hands with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Hanoi. Trump said he walked away from his second summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un because Kim demanded the United States. lift all of its sanctions, a claim that North Korea's delegation called a rare news conference in the middle of the night to deny. [AP/YONHAP]

An expert expressed skepticism Tuesday over the possibility of U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un meeting on the margins of the upcoming Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Economic Leaders' Meeting in South Korea, but he did not rule it out completely.

During a news conference, Andrew Yeo, SK-Korea Foundation chair at the Brookings Institution's Center for East Asia Policy Studies, based his skepticism on the short duration of Trump's planned trip to Korea and the president's focus on the much anticipated meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping there.

Trump is expected to visit South Korea from Oct. 29 to 30 — before the APEC meeting kicks off its two-day run on Oct. 31 — as the White House has said that Trump remains open to talking with Kim "without any preconditions," reinforcing speculation that he could seek reengagement with Kim while in Korea.

"The reason why I am skeptical about it is first, Trump is only in [Korea for two days], and he's not even going to come to the [APEC] leaders' meeting [...] It's a very short trip. The Xi-Trump meeting is really the primary focus," he said.

"I am not sure if the [Trump] team has the bandwidth to do a Kim meeting as well. So this is really a logistical issue — logistics and protocol," he added.

However, Yeo left open the possibility of a Trump-Kim meeting, noting a recent CNN report that U.S. officials have privately discussed setting up their meeting, as well as a plan to suspend field trips to the inter-Korean border village of Panmunjom — a potential venue for their talks — during the APEC period.

"You never know what he's going to do. On June 29, 2019, he just sent out a tweet saying, 'Here I am. I am going to the peninsula. It would be nice to say hello to Kim,'" the scholar said. "So, there could be a repeat. I am sure the USFK and the Korean military are dusting off their playbook on what the protocol would be."

USFK stands for U.S. Forces Korea.

Trump and Kim last met for their third in-person talks at Panmunjom in June 2019, following their first summit in Singapore in June 2018 and their second in Hanoi in February 2019.

The expert raised questions about whether Kim is ready to reengage with Trump. Speculation has lingered that Kim's appetite for reengagement with either the United States or South Korea has lessened, as he has deepened ties with Russian President Vladimir Putin and sought to further reinforce relations with Xi.

"I think on Kim's end as well, it's unclear whether he would want to have that meeting right now or not. He has met Putin. He's met Xi," Yeo said. "I've heard from some Chinese sources that Xi had encouraged Kim to meet with Trump if that opportunity is there."

Noting North Korea's rejection of inter-Korean dialogue and its redefinition of South Korea as a "hostile" state, Yeo said that South Korean President Lee Jae Myung may have to rely on Trump for Seoul to rekindle any substantive engagement with Pyongyang.

"In some ways, for Lee to have any sort of significance in the eyes of Kim, it has to go through Trump, or in this case, the U.S. has to play [a] mediating role," he said. "It's reversed from 2018 where the Moon Jae-in government helped connect Trump to Kim. Now it's the other way around."

Touching on an expected meeting between Lee and Trump in Korea likely later this month, Yeo anticipated that Kim would be part of their discussions, as the recalcitrant leader was a topic of both leaders' interest as seen during their first summit at the White House in August.

"Especially if there's no trade deal in place, they have to talk about something, and that's the one that they have in common. So it will definitely be discussed," he said.

"To what degree, I think it'll depend on whether there's trade and security issues in place because those were not covered really at all at the Trump-Lee meeting back on Aug. 25."

Yeo expected that Seoul and Washington could make some announcements on trade and security right before or at the Lee-Trump meeting in Korea, including those related to the USFK troop presence, "strategic flexibility" of U.S. troops in Korea and the transfer of wartime operational control (Opcon), though they might not conclude anything.

Under a joint effort to "modernize" the alliance, the two countries have discussed the issue of strategic flexibility to allow USFK personnel to engage in broader regional security operations beyond their traditional focus on deterring North Korea, while working on the "conditions-based" Opcon transfer to Korea from the United States.

Regarding the Opcon transition, Yeo assessed that the Trump administration is willing to have "open" conversations about it given that it suggests that Korea will undertake more wartime military responsibilities. Seoul hopes to achieve the transition within the term of the Lee administration.

Yonhap