WASHINGTON, March 13 (Reuters) – South Korean Prime Minister Kim Min-seok and U.S. President Donald Trump discussed possible reopening of talks between Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in a meeting in Washington, Yonhap news agency reported on Saturday.
Kim told Trump he was the only Western leader to have had dialogue with North Korea’s Kim and was currently the only person who could resolve issues on the Korean peninsula, Yonhap quoted Kim as telling reporters in Washington.
“President Trump said he was curious if Kim wants to talk to the U.S. or him and asked about my views on that,” Kim was quoted as saying.
Kim did not say what specific suggestions he made to Trump but said he told Trump that recent comments by Pyongyang indicated Kim may be open to dialogue with the U.S., Yonhap said. Trump showed much interest in the topic, Kim added.
Trump met Kim, the North Korean leader, for three rounds of talks in 2018 and 2019 to negotiate better relations and a path for Pyongyang to end its nuclear weapons programme, but the talks stalled when Trump was voted out of office.
A South Korean official confirmed Friday’s meeting between Kim and Trump but gave no other details. Kim’s office in Seoul did not respond to calls seeking confirmation.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the meeting, which was not previously announced and occurred a day after Kim met U.S. Vice President JD Vance in Washington on Thursday.
Kim’s office has said he told Vance that South Korean parliament’s approval of a bill this week enabling Seoul to implement a $350 billion investment pledge demonstrated the government’s strong commitment to carrying out the agreement reached between the countries’ leaders.
Kim’s office said Vance welcomed the bill’s passage, saying it established the legal conditions needed to implement the investment deal, and called for continued close communication between the governments on the issue.
In late January, Trump threatened to raise tariffs on South Korean goods to 25%, saying Seoul’s legislature had yet to enact the trade framework that had capped U.S. levies at 15%.
Seoul and Washington are treaty allies with close military ties and more than 28,000 U.S. troops are station in South Korea.
South Korean media has reported that some U.S. missile defense batteries have been shipped out South Korea’s Osan Air Base and were likely to be redeployed to U.S. bases in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates given the conflict in the Middle East.
(Reporting by David Brunnstrom, Daphne Psaledakis, Bhargav Acharya and Humeyra Pamuk in Washington, Jack Kim in Seoul; Editing by Alistair Bell and Stephen Coates)
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