“The president, of course, has expressed his willingness to meet with Kim Jong Un in the future. It is not on the schedule for this trip”, the senior official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told reporters in a call on Friday. Speaking to reporters before departing for Asia late on Friday night, President Trump said he would like to meet Kim, but he was not sure if it would happen. “He knows I’m going there”, Trump said, referring to the North Korean leader.

Speaking later aboard Air Force One regarding a possible meeting with Kim, Trump said: “I’d be open 100 percent. I get along very well with Kim Jong Un”. South Korea’s unification minister had said on Friday that he believed there was a “considerable” chance that Trump would meet Kim while he is in the South Korean city of Gyeongju next week for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation  Forum.

North Korea appears “to be paying attention to the United States, and various signs suggest a considerable possibility of a meeting”, Unification Minister Chung Dong-young told reporters, before urging the two leaders not to let the opportunity “slip away”. “I don’t want to miss even a one percent chance”, said Chung, whose ministry handles Seoul’s fraught relations with Pyongyang. “They need to make a decision”, he said.

While the meeting between Trump and Kim now looks less likely, the White House confirmed on Thursday that Trump will be meeting Chinese President Xi Jinping before he returns to the US from his multi-day visit to Southeast Asia. Trump will begin his trip in Malaysia this weekend, where he is due to attend the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) summit. A number of other high-profile leaders from non-ASEAN countries will also be present in Malaysia, including Japan’s new Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, and South African President Cyril Ramaphosa. (Aljazeera)