US President Donald Trump said on Thursday that he was “too busy” to meet North Korean leader Kim Jong Un during his visit to South Korea, but suggested a future meeting could take place.“I had a great relationship with Kim Jong Un,” he told reporters aboard Air Force One, as cited by AFP.After arriving in South Korea for the final leg of his Asia tour, Trump told President Lee Jae Myung that he hoped to resolve “a lingering cloud that’s over your head.”“We’ll work very hard with Kim Jong-un and with everybody on getting things straightened out, because that makes sense,” Trump added, as cited by the New York Times. “It’s common sense that that should work out, and I feel certain that it will. It may take a little time, you’ll have to have a little patience, but I feel absolutely certain that it will.”Trump made the remarks on the sidelines of his meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Busan, held amid a tense phase in US–China relations characterized by trade disputes, strategic mistrust, and competing economic interests.Despite months of tariff exchanges and mutual accusations, both sides have been cautiously exploring the possibility of a new framework for cooperation.Trump has repeatedly expressed his desire to meet North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, renewing invitations ahead of his visit to South Korea, a move that was welcomed by officials in Seoul.“I just had a good relationship with him,” Trump said earlier this week, as cited by Reuters. “I would love to see him, if he wants to, if he even gets this message. We haven’t mentioned anything, but he knows I’m going over there. If he’d like to meet, I’d love to meet him.”When asked what might persuade Kim to return to negotiations, Trump replied that sanctions would be the key.When asked what might persuade Kim to return to negotiations, Trump replied that sanctions would be the key.“That’s pretty big to start off with,” Trump said. “I would say that’s about as big as you get.”Trump and Kim previously held summits in 2018 and 2019, but talks collapsed over disagreements concerning North Korea’s nuclear weapons program. The country remains under extensive international sanctions for its nuclear and ballistic missile activities.Last month, Kim indicated a willingness to meet Trump again if the United States dropped its demand for denuclearization, while ruling out any dialogue with South Korea.“Personally, I still have fond memories of US President Trump,” he said in a speech, as per the Korean Central News Agency, a state media outlet. “If the United States drops the absurd obsession with denuclearising us and accepts reality, and wants genuine peaceful coexistence, there is no reason for us not to sit down with the United States.”Meanwhile, Trump said on Thursday that he had approved South Korea’s plan to develop a nuclear-powered submarine.
