President Donald Trump suggested Friday, October 24, 2025, that his attempts to arrange a meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un during his diplomatic tour of Asia were complicated by what he described as North Korea’s lack of adequate telephone service.
Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One as he departed Washington for a five-day visit to Malaysia, Japan and South Korea, the 79-year-old president indicated he was open to meeting with the North Korean despot but appeared uncertain about how to communicate his willingness.
When asked if he planned to meet with Kim during the diplomatic tour, Trump responded that he was open to the possibility but suggested the journalist asking the question should help spread the word. “You know, they don’t have a lot of telephone service. They have a lot of nuclear weapons, but not a lot of telephone service,” he told reporters.
Trump elaborated that there were limited ways to contact the North Korean leader beyond the internet, emphasizing what he characterized as the country’s minimal telephonic infrastructure. The president, who commands a diplomatic corps of approximately 80,000 foreign service employees, appeared to believe that members of the White House press pool might have better success reaching the foreign leader than his own State Department.
The president referenced his previous relationship with Kim, indicating the North Korean leader probably knew about the visit. Trump made history during his first term as the first sitting U.S. president to step into North Korea, briefly crossing its border with South Korea during a 2019 meeting. The two leaders met three times during Trump’s initial presidency. A senior U.S. official, however, stated that no meeting with Kim appeared on the president’s official schedule on this trip and the meeting did not happen.
While North Korea does impose severe restrictions on telecommunications for ordinary citizens, who cannot access the internet, place international calls or make domestic calls without state monitoring, there is little evidence suggesting that Kim or his immediate team face similar limitations in their communications capabilities. The hermit kingdom’s totalitarian government maintains stringent controls over mobile networks through its intelligence services.
However, a senior U.S. official stated that no such event appeared on the president’s official schedule and the meeting did not happen.
Kim has recently signaled interest in meeting with Trump if Washington dropped its demand that Pyongyang abandon its nuclear arsenal. In a speech last month, Kim stated through state media that he still had favorable memories of the president. North Korea is believed to possess between 40 and 60 nuclear warheads, making it a de facto nuclear-armed state.
During the Air Force One exchange, Trump was pressed by another reporter about what else he was open to discussing with Kim. The president appeared to suggest he could potentially be willing to formally recognize the totalitarian East Asian dictatorship as a nuclear power, something not even North Korea’s allies in Russia and China have expressed appetite for. Trump acknowledged knowing how many weapons the country possessed and characterized his relationship with Kim as very good.
Any recognition of North Korea as a nuclear power under the UN-brokered 1968 Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty remains firmly opposed by 191 of the world’s 195 states that have signed the agreement, including the United States.
The president was accompanied by Secretary of State Marco Rubio during the Asian tour. Trump’s first stop was Malaysia, where he attended the Association of Southeast Asian Nations summit. He also met with Qatar’s emir during a refueling stop on the way to Malaysia, where discussions were focused on the fragile ceasefire in Gaza.
Trump arrived in Busan on Wednesday ahead of the APEC summit, where he met with South Korean leader Lee Jae Myung. The two leaders previously met in August at the White House to discuss peace on the Korean peninsula and the possibility of a Trump-Kim meeting.
In Tokyo, Trump met with Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, Japan’s first female leader, and Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi to discuss defense cooperation, trade agreements, and the supply of critical minerals
The president’s departure for Asia came amid a tense domestic situation, with an ongoing government shutdown that began on October 1. Democrats have held firm in their demands to extend critical health insurance subsidies and to end Trump’s attempts to cancel congressionally approved spending before approving a budget, with no end to the shutdown currently in sight.