[The Viewpoint of Dongki Kim] Deals Beyond Imagination May Happen

Why Does Trump Want to Meet Kim Jong Un?


Despite the Breakdown in Talks, No Public Criticism

U.S. Puts Interests First, Erasing 'CVID'

North Korea Eyes Sanctions Relief and Rare Earth Benefits

A Major North Korea-U.S. Deal Approaches as the Landscape Changes

Recently, U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un have once again captured intense public attention. In June, President Trump unexpectedly uploaded photos from his 2018 summit with Kim on social media platforms, and he continued to post related images in August. Then, on August 19, he stated unequivocally that he would meet Kim by the end of this year. The question arises: Why does President Trump want to meet with Kim?

Beyond Trump's personal motives, there has already been a perspective that improving relations with North Korea is necessary to serve U.S. national interests. Walter Russell Mead, a renowned American scholar of international relations, argued in his column published on April 5, 2021, in The Wall Street Journal (WSJ), titled “Detente Might Be an Option for North Korea,” that a breakthrough in U.S.-North Korea relations would help Washington and its allies achieve a favorable power balance against China in East Asia.

Additionally, immediately after the U.S. presidential election on December 29, 2024, geopolitical experts Dmitri Alperovitch and Sergey Radchenko, a professor at Johns Hopkins University, presented a remarkably unconventional solution in their column in The New York Times (NYT), titled “Trump-Kim Act II Could Shake the World.” They argued that the Trump administration must use the unique, personal rapport between the two leaders as leverage to secure practical concessions from North Korea, such as a moratorium on nuclear weapons testing, in exchange for the establishment of diplomatic relations and relaxation of economic sanctions. This, they believed, would constitute a realist strategy that would allow the U.S. to focus its capabilities on containing China by separating North Korea from China and Russia.

To understand President Trump’s diplomacy, it is important to grasp not only America’s strategic interests but also Trump’s personal psychology. According to “Inside Trump’s White House,” the official White House history of Trump’s first term written by historian Doug Wead, after reading the secret personal letters exchanged between President Trump and Kim, the author perceived an almost “paternal affection” in the way Trump approached Kim and characterized their relationship. During a luncheon with Wead, President Trump emphasized, “Kim and I have excellent chemistry. Whether it’s business or politics, I can tell instantly if chemistry exists the moment I meet someone.” For a leader like President Trump, who values personal diplomacy over official diplomatic channels, his positive feelings toward Kim inevitably play a significant role.

Although President Trump declared immediately after the 2024 election that he would meet Kim again, the second Trump administration barely invested diplomatic resources necessary to entice Pyongyang back into negotiations. Then, ahead of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit held in Gyeongju last year, President Trump, who was visiting Korea, proposed a meeting to Kim, but North Korea remained silent. This was certainly not because North Korea is uninterested in talks or improving relations with the U.S. Given his scars from the failed Hanoi summit in 2019, Kim would have found it difficult to agree to a meeting unless tangible results were guaranteed. The U.S. approach was too hasty and complacent.

Despite the breakdown in dialogue, President Trump refrained from openly criticizing Kim. On the contrary, the “National Security Strategy” outlining the Trump 2.0 administration’s foreign policy was released late last year, marking a significant shift in attitude toward North Korea. The 2017 National Security Strategy had explicitly defined North Korea as a “rogue regime” that posed an existential threat to the U.S. homeland and its allies, underscoring a firm commitment to “complete, verifiable, and irreversible denuclearization (CVID).” The 2022 strategy aimed to manage the North Korean nuclear issue as an ongoing threat, maintaining pressure for denuclearization while keeping the door open for diplomatic solutions. However, by the 2025 strategy, which signaled a complete pivot to prioritizing national interests and “strategic restraint,” the United States entirely omitted any mention of North Korea from its security priorities. This formalized a fundamental change in America’s attitude toward Pyongyang—a shift North Korea would have welcomed.

Following such a fundamental shift in the American strategic position, renewed North Korea-U.S. dialogue was anticipated, but the Iran war emerged as an obstacle. The June issue of Japan’s “Bungei Shunju” carried an article titled “Kim Jong Un’s Secret Negotiations for Trump’s May Visit to North Korea.” According to the report, North Korea proposed a comprehensive package: fundamental improvement in relations, mutual liaison offices, exchange of news agency bureaus, phased repatriation of U.S. military remains, and humanitarian aid in medicine and food. The proposal also included authorizing U.S. investment in rare earth mineral development in North Korea, lifting tourism restrictions for the Wonsan-Galma region, and holding a North Korea-U.S. summit. In return, North Korea’s precondition was that denuclearization would not be an agenda item in the talks. Instead, in consideration of the American election season, Pyongyang offered a “verifiable dismantlement show” of its intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) as a negotiation card.

This was a tempting carrot for President Trump. Through this deal, North Korea would essentially gain recognition as a nuclear-armed state, solidifying regime security, securing major sanctions relief, attracting Western investment, and reducing excessive security and economic dependence on Russia and China. For President Trump, the agreement would bring home an overwhelmingly visual diplomatic trophy—the “dismantlement show of North Korean ICBMs targeting the U.S. mainland”—ahead of the November midterm elections, boost conservative support by repatriating military remains, and obtain practical benefits such as development rights to North Korea’s rare earth minerals, critical for advanced industries. In sum, if this report is accurate, North Korea was seeking a highly pragmatic deal with President Trump.

Given these developments, a North Korea-U.S. summit session may soon take place, potentially resulting in a deal beyond our imagination. The United States no longer prioritizes South Korea’s security interests and is approaching the North Korean issue strictly from an American viewpoint. If we are unable to change this U.S. attitude, we now must deeply explore ways to align our geopolitical interests in the event that North Korea-U.S. relations improve.

Donggi Kim, Attorney & Author

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.