Trump Says U.S. Is Communicating With North Korea

May 2025
By Kelsey Davenport

U.S. President Donald Trump said the United States is communicating with North Korea but did not provide any details regarding his administration’s approach to addressing the nuclear threat posed by Pyongyang. Meanwhile, North Korea continues to justify expanding its nuclear arsenal as a necessary counter to the threat posed by the United States.

In a March 31 remark to a reporter at the White House, Trump described North Korea as a “big nuclear nation” and emphasized his “very good relationship” with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. Trump said he will “probably do something with him at some point.”

Trump and Kim met three times during Trump’s first term as president. At their first meeting in Singapore, Trump and Kim signed a declaration that included a commitment to the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula and to establishing a new relationship between the United States and North Korea. (See ACT, July/August 2018.)

The declaration produced few tangible results, and since then, Kim has expanded North Korea’s nuclear arsenal and broadened the circumstances under which Pyongyang would consider using nuclear weapons.

Although the Trump administration has reaffirmed its commitment to denuclearization, North Korea now rejects that goal, and it is unclear if Pyongyang would be willing to engage Washington if denuclearization remains the goal.

In an April 9 statement to the state-run Korean Central News Agency, Kim Yo Jong, the sister of Kim Jong Un, said that denuclearization is an “anachronistic” goal and U.S. insistence on it only gives “unlimited justness and justification” for North Korea “building the strongest nuclear force for self-defense.”

North Korea’s nuclear weapon status can “never be reversed by any physical strength or sly artifice,” she said.

Although Trump’s remarks suggested that his administration is not currently prioritizing North Korea, Gen. Dan Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said that “North Korea’s long-range missile and nuclear programs pose an immediate security challenge” to the United States.

Caine, in his confirmation testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee April 1, warned that North Korea’s relationship with Russia will likely enable further military advances, “increasing the threat to regional stability and U.S. interests.”

Although there does not appear to be an immediate opening for diplomacy with North Korea, the upcoming presidential election in South Korea could lower tensions on the Korean peninsula. Because the South Korean Supreme Court upheld the impeachment of President Yoon Suk Yeol over his declaration of martial law last year, the country must hold elections by June 3.

When Yoon took office in 2022, he pledged to build up South Korea’s military and take a harder line on North Korea than his predecessor, Moon Jae-in, who facilitated the first meeting between Trump and Kim in 2018. The next government may pursue a less adversarial approach toward North Korea to ease tensions. It may also distance itself from calls for South Korea to develop nuclear weapons, which senior officials discussed more prominently during the Yoon administration, prompting backlash in the United States. (See ACT, March 2023.)

In March, the U.S. Department of Energy designated South Korea as a “sensitive” country, which will subject foreign nationals to more stringent review and to an approval process on cooperative projects. Concern about nuclear proliferation is one of the reasons a given country is designated sensitive.

Other countries on the “sensitive” list include China, Iran, Israel, Russia, and Taiwan.

South Korean officials downplayed the designation, which went into effect April 15, and suggested it has nothing to do with concerns that Seoul might pursue nuclear weapons. They emphasized that the country does not face any new restrictions on access to cooperative projects.

South Korean Foreign Minister Cho Tae-yul said March 24 that the United States told South Korea that the decision was part of an effort to strengthen technical security and protect intellectual property.