President Donald Trump offered an unusual explanation Friday, October 24, 2025, for why he had not arranged a meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un during his diplomatic tour of Asia — claiming the totalitarian nation lacks adequate telephone service.
Speaking with reporters aboard Air Force One as he departed Washington for a five-day trip through Malaysia, Japan, and South Korea, the 79-year-old president suggested that communication challenges prevented direct contact with the North Korean dictator. When asked whether he planned to meet with Kim during the week’s tour, Trump indicated he would be open to such an encounter but appeared to suggest journalists would need to facilitate the arrangement.
“You know, they don’t have a lot of telephone service. They have a lot of nuclear weapons, but not a lot of telephone service,” he said. “I’m open to it, I had a great relationship with him. He probably knows I’m coming. But… you wanna put out the word… I’m open to it… There’s not a lot of ways other than the internet, you know, they have very little telephonic service.”
The comments raised questions about why the president — who commands a diplomatic corps of approximately 80,000 foreign service employees — appeared to believe members of the White House press pool would have greater success contacting a foreign leader than his own administration.
North Korea’s limited communications infrastructure stems less from technological deficiency than from the regime’s totalitarian control over information. The isolated nation, often called the “Hermit Kingdom,” maintains one of the world’s most repressive governments, with mobile networks subject to stringent monitoring by state intelligence services. While ordinary citizens cannot access the internet, place international calls or make domestic calls without state surveillance, evidence suggests the supreme leader and his immediate circle are not subject to the same restrictions.
Trump made history during his first term as the first sitting U.S. president to step into North Korea, briefly crossing its border with South Korea during a surprise visit to the Demilitarized Zone in June 2019. The two leaders met three times during his initial presidency, and Trump has repeatedly characterized their relationship as positive.
In recent months, Kim has indicated interest in meeting with Trump again, provided Washington drops its demand that Pyongyang abandon its nuclear weapons program. Kim has said that he has positive memories of Trump, according to state media reports.
When pressed further by reporters about what else he might be open to discussing, Trump appeared willing to consider formally recognizing North Korea as a nuclear power — a designation that not even the country’s allies, Russia and China, have endorsed. He acknowledged that the nation possesses between 40 and 60 warheads, describing it as “sort of a nuclear power” while claiming detailed knowledge of its weapons capabilities.
Such recognition would contradict the 1968 Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, which 191 of the world’s 195 nations have signed, including the United States. While North Korea functions as a de facto nuclear-armed state, formal recognition as a nuclear power under the U.N.-brokered agreement remains firmly opposed by the international community.
The president was accompanied by Secretary of State Marco Rubio during the Asian tour. Trump attended the Association of Southeast Asian Nations summit in Malaysia, arriving Sunday morning local time, before traveling to South Korea for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum meetings in Busan on Oct. 29 and 30.
During a refueling stop, Trump met with Qatar’s emir. Discussions focused on the fragile ceasefire in Gaza, which administration officials have described as proceeding better than anticipated despite dozens of alleged violations by both sides.
In South Korea, Trump met with President Lee Jae Myung. The two leaders previously conferred at the White House in August to discuss peace on the Korean peninsula and the potential for a Trump-Kim meeting.
In Seoul on Oct. 29, 2025, Donald Trump and Lee Jae‑Myung, the newly inaugurated South Korean president, held a bilateral meeting on the sidelines of the APEC 2025 Summit in Gyeongju, during which they finalised a broad deal worth roughly $350 billion in U.S.-South Korea investment and trade commitments. The deal includes plans for South Korea to build nuclear-powered submarines in partnership with the U.S. and sets the stage for expanded defense cooperation in the region.
According to Reuters, Seoul awarded Trump the Grand Order of Mugunghwa – its highest civilian decoration – and presented him a replica of a golden Silla-dynasty crown as part of the welcome ceremony.
The president departed for Asia amid a tense domestic situation, with an ongoing government shutdown that began Oct. 1 showing no signs of resolution. Democrats have maintained firm positions demanding extended health insurance subsidies and opposing Trump’s attempts to cancel congressionally approved spending before approving a budget.