Trump Downplays Possible Kim Meeting During November China Trip: 'Not Sure Anybody's Asking for a Meeting'
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump on October 19 played down the prospect of meeting North Korean leader Kim Jong Un during his trip to China next month for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit, according to an October 20 report by Aju Press (AJP). Asked by reporters on the South Lawn of the White House whether a meeting with Kim would take place during the trip, Trump sounded uncertain: "Oh, I don't know. I don't know," he said. "I'm not sure that anybody's asking for a meeting."
Trump nevertheless stressed his personal rapport with Kim. "I get along with him very well," he said. "My relationship with Kim Jong-un is very good."
The remarks cooled signals Trump himself had sent earlier. In August, he said he hoped to meet Kim this year, and as recently as October 12 he suggested a meeting could take place during his Asia trip, saying, "That'll be exciting, won't it?" North Korea has publicly indicated it is not open to talks aimed at persuading Pyongyang to give up its nuclear weapons.
The APEC leaders' meeting is scheduled for November 18-19 in Shenzhen, China. Trump has confirmed he will attend and meet Chinese President Xi Jinping, in what would be the two leaders' third face-to-face meeting this year, after Beijing in May and Washington in September. According to the White House, Trump will first travel to Manila for the ASEAN summit on November 16 before proceeding to Shenzhen.
In the same exchange with reporters, Trump also said he was willing to hold trilateral talks with Xi and Russian President Vladimir Putin focused on denuclearization on the sidelines of the APEC summit, as GSM has reported separately. A potential Trump-Kim encounter would be a separate arrangement from the proposed three-way talks. (GSM, based on Aju Press and other published reports)
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Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：特朗普10月19日在白宫南草坪登乘「海军陆战队一号」前与媒体记者交谈。图片来源：白宫官方照片（摄影：Joyce N. Boghosian），公共领域，经维基共享资源。 / Photo: President Trump speaks with members of the media before departing on Marine One from the South Lawn of the White House, October 19, 2026. Official White House photo by Joyce N. Boghosian, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
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