Copyright kyodonews
GYEONGJU, South Korea - U.S. President Donald Trump said Wednesday he had been unable to work out the timing for in-person talks with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un as he met with South Korean President Lee Jae Myung in Gyeongju. "I know Kim Jong Un very well. We get along very well," Trump said at the outset of his talks with Lee. "We will have other visits and we'll work very hard with Kim Jong Un and with everybody on getting things straightened out," he added. Earlier in the day, Trump said he hoped to meet with Kim "at some point in the not-too-distant future." South Korea is the final leg of his three-nation Asia trip, which also included Malaysia and Japan. During the ongoing trip, Trump repeatedly indicated his wish to reengage with Kim, but North Korea did not make official reaction to the U.S. leader's overture. Lee said the fact that Trump expressed his willingness to meet with Kim at any time has, in itself, created a significant atmosphere of peace on the Korean Peninsula. Trump and Kim held in-person talks three times -- in Singapore, Vietnam and at the inter-Korean truce village of Panmunjeom -- between 2018 and 2019. But their nuclear talks ultimately collapsed. In September, Kim said Pyongyang could resume talks with Washington if the United States did not seek its denuclearization. There is "no reason" for the two countries to avoid dialogue if Washington wants peaceful coexistence, Kim was quoted as saying by the official Korean Central News Agency at the time. Trump also told Lee the Korean Peninsula is still "officially at war" and that "we will see what we can do to get that all straightened out." The 1950-1953 Korean War ended with an armistice, not a peace treaty, leaving the two Koreas technically in a state of war. In the conflict, U.S.-led U.N. forces fought alongside South Korea against the North supported by China and the Soviet Union.
