North Korea preparing for potential Trump-Kim meeting, Seoul says

Soo-Hyang Choi, Bloomberg News on Nov 4, 2025

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SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea is preparing for a potential summit meeting between leader Kim Jong Un and President Donald Trump as the idea was broached during Trump’s recent visit to Asia, based on an assessment by South Korea’s National Intelligence Service.

Pyongyang gathered intelligence on American officials involved in North Korea diplomacy behind the scenes, the spy agency said, South Korean lawmaker Lee Seong-kweun told reporters Tuesday. Also, North Korean Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui reviewed whether to proceed with a planned visit to Russia after Trump expressed a willingness to meet Kim, according to Lee, who attended a closed-door meeting.

Had a summit been arranged last month, Choe’s presence would have been required, forcing her to postpone a visit to Russia.

Trump last met with Kim in 2019 during his first term. During his latest trip to Asia, the president said he remained open to meeting the North Korean leader again but scheduling conflicts prevented that from happening.

“Backed by growing alignment with Russia and strengthened ties with China, North Korea could seek to improve ties with the U.S.,” Park Sun-won, another lawmaker briefed by the NIS, told reporters. “The NIS sees a high likelihood of a summit between North Korea and the U.S.,” he added.

Kim has also left open the possibility of another meeting with Trump, though he has insisted that Washington and Seoul drop a demand for denuclearization as a precondition. His renewed openness to talks underscores North Korea’s effort to reframe diplomacy to legitimize its nuclear arsenal as permanent.

Trump’s earlier summits with Kim failed to convince Pyongyang to abandon its nuclear ambitions. Since then, North Korea has expanded its weapons programs and emerged as a key ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, providing support for Moscow’s war against Ukraine.

The NIS told lawmakers that North Korea appears to have received Russian assistance to improve missile precision and is closely watching whether sensitive military technologies are being transferred after a series of visits by North Korean defense officials to Russia.

Some 10,000 North Korean troops dispatched to Russia have been deployed near the border with Ukraine while some 1,000 soldiers are involved in mine removal operations, Lee said. Another 5,000 construction troops have been moving to Russia in phases since September for reconstruction work, he added.

The U.S. and its allies have raised concerns over what Kim may have received in return for helping Russia. Last month, Kim showcased his latest Hwasong-20 intercontinental ballistic missile designed to attack the U.S. mainland at a military parade. South Korea believes the new ICBM features a lighter body, enhanced propulsion and a bigger space for payloads, suggesting a potential ability to carry multiple or bigger warheads.

North Korea has also made rapid progress in its drone capabilities in what could be a serious threat to South Korea, the spy agency was quoted as saying. Yet the NIS believes it will take considerable time for North Korea to achieve fully operational capability in its hypersonic missile, surveillance satellite and destroyer programs. Development of its underwater weapons systems also remains sluggish, Lee said.