South Korean President Lee Jae Myung said on Friday that US President Donald Trump "clearly" wants to maintain dialogue with Pyongyang, and that he has been "urging" him to do so. Speaking to reporters at the presidential Blue House in Seoul, Lee described ongoing "preliminary coordination efforts" to facilitate talks between the North and the United States, adding that a meeting "remains difficult" but is "not impossible."
"I cannot say for certain how likely it is, but it is also clear that we must make every possible effort to turn that possibility into reality," Lee said.
Trump announced in August that he intended to meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un later this year, touting their personal relationship. It would be their first encounter since Trump's first term in the White House, though he provided no further details at the time. "You know what, the fact that I get along with him, that's a good thing not a bad thing. He has 57 very powerful nuclear weapons. Should have never allowed it to happen," Trump said.
Pyongyang has offered little public response to Trump's overture. Instead, North Korea has deepened its ties with Russia in recent years, a shift that complicates any diplomatic push. The lack of enthusiasm from the North was underscored on Friday when Kim Yo Jong, the powerful sister of Kim Jong-un, issued a sharp rebuke of US military drills in the region, calling them a "US-led war rehearsal."
Kim Yo Jong's warning
In a statement carried by the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), Kim Yo Jong said: "The present situation, in which new records are set in terms of practical action hostile toward the DPRK, stresses the need to break records in our responsive action, proportional or more offensive in its nature." She added: "Our will to defend our sovereignty will be expressed in clearer action and there will be never ever change in the course of intensifying the nuclear war deterrence."
Her remarks come as Trump has ordered US forces to scale back "costly" joint military drills with South Korea, which he said sent an "inappropriate and hostile" signal to Pyongyang. That decision, announced in August, was framed by Trump as a concession to the North, but it has raised concerns in Seoul about the strength of the alliance.
Lee's comments reflect a delicate balancing act. He is seeking to keep the door open for diplomacy while reassuring a domestic audience that South Korea will not be dragged into a wider conflict. On the Middle East, Lee was equally clear: Seoul will not deploy troops or military assets in a way that could involve the country in the war between the US and Iran. "There will be no involvement or intervention in the war," he said, adding that South Korea would "carry out the minimum necessary activities" to protect its merchant ships and oil shipping routes in the region.
Seoul had reportedly considered sending forces to the Strait of Hormuz, a strategic waterway at the centre of US-Iran tensions since the war broke out in late February. Trump, in a post on Truth Social, claimed he had asked Lee whether South Korea would join in the "Denuclearization of the Islamic Republic of Iran," and that Lee had declined. "They said, 'No thanks!'" Trump wrote.
The interplay between the Korean Peninsula and the wider geopolitical landscape is increasingly complex. Trump's pressure on allies, from reshaping transatlantic ties to his threats over Canada's EU associate bid, has created an environment where traditional alliances are being tested. For Seoul, the challenge is to maintain a credible deterrent while keeping open the possibility of negotiation.
Lee's insistence that a meeting between Trump and Kim is "not impossible" may be optimistic, but it reflects a consistent South Korean policy of engagement. The North's recent actions, including missile tests and the strengthening of its nuclear arsenal, suggest that Kim Jong-un is in no hurry to return to the negotiating table. Yet Lee's message is clear: the effort must be made, even if the odds are long.
As the year draws to a close, the prospect of a Trump-Kim summit remains uncertain. But Lee's public urging adds a new layer of pressure on Washington to keep diplomacy alive, even as Pyongyang's rhetoric grows more confrontational.
