US President Donald Trump and South Korean President Lee Jae Myung attend a bilateral meeting in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC, on August 25, 2025. — AFP/ANN Photo

SEOUL — US President Donald Trump expressed his anticipation to meet North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, hopefully this year, during a summit with South Korean President Lee Jae Myung at the White House on Monday (local time).

Describing his relationship with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un as 'very good,' Trump said he would meet with him 'in an appropriate future,' which could be as early as this year.

"Well, I’m meeting a lot of people. I mean, it’s hard to say that, but I’d like to meet him this year," Trump told reporters, describing North Korea as 'a country of great potential, tremendous potential.'

"I spent a lot of free time with him, talking about things that we probably aren’t supposed to talk about. And, you know, I just, I get along with him really well."

Trump expressed his anticipation to work with Lee in doing so. Lee also told Trump that he hopes the US president will open a new path to peace on the Korean Peninsula and play the role of 'a peacemaker.'

"We think we can do something in that regard with respect to North and South and I think you are much more prone to doing that than other leaders that I’ve been working with from South Korea," Trump said.

On the US forces in South Korea, Trump asked for ownership of lands occupied by US military bases across South Korea for nearly 30,000 troops.

"Maybe one of the things I’d like to do is ask them to give us ownership of the land where we have the big fort," Trump said. "I would like to see if we could get rid of the lease and get ownership of the land where we have a massive military base."

During the summit, Lee told Trump that South Korea would seek to join the US shipbuilding and manufacturing 'renaissance.' Trump, in return, said South Korea could be a partner in having the US shipbuilding business get going again.

"We are thinking about contact, contracting some ships. They build them very well in South Korea. They’re also thinking about coming to our country with some shipyards to start us on the process of building ships again," Trump said.

"We’re also going to have them make ships here with our people, using our people, and we’re going to go back into the shipbuilding business again."

Trump and Lee also commented on trilateral cooperation among Seoul, Washington and Tokyo, with Lee saying he believes many of the obstacles regarding Korea-Japan relations have been removed for further cooperation among the three countries in his preceding summit with Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba over the weekend.

To a reporter’s question whether he plans to attend the APEC Economic Leaders’ Meeting to be hosted by Korea in October, Trump signaled openness, saying he expects to visit Korea soon for a trade meeting. — THE KOREA HERALD