The meeting was arranged at the last minute with no prior public notice. In the brief session, Lee urged Trump to create a breakthrough in a diplomatic track that has seen almost no direct contact between Washington and Pyongyang in recent years. The two leaders agreed to communicate closely as “peacemakers and pacemakers,” the Blue House said.
Trump has been actively courting Kim since August, when he scaled back a major joint military exercise with South Korea. A day later, Trump claimed Kim had responded to his request for dialogue, calling the exchange very positive without offering specifics. The US president has since indicated he hopes to meet Kim before the end of the year, potentially during the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Shenzhen, China, this November.
However, North Korea has publicly denied any direct contact. In a statement released through Kim Yo Jong, the powerful sister of Kim Jong Un, Pyongyang dismissed the reduction in scale of the South Korea-U.S. joint exercises as “unworthy of comment.” While describing the relationship between the two leaders as “excellent,” Kim Yo Jong insisted that Washington had not changed its hostile policy toward North Korea, casting doubt on the prospects for renewed talks.
Lee had earlier made the case for reopening dialogue in his address to the UN General Assembly on the same day, emphasizing the need for a diplomatic push.