No plans for Trump to meet North Korea's Kim during Asia tour: Official

By Michael Hernandez

WASHINGTON (AA) - There are no plans for US President Donald Trump to sit down with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un during his upcoming five-day tour of Asia, a senior US official said Friday.

"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 official said during a conference call with reporters.

The official, like others on the call, spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss details of the US president's upcoming visits to Malaysia, Japan, and South Korea.

Trump is slated to depart late Friday night. He will begin a series of official visits with a first stop in Malaysia Sunday where he is expected to "preside over a significant peace agreement that will save more lives, reduce more conflict and advance security across a free and open Indo Pacific," the official said.

Trump will then sit down with Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, and attend the US-ASEAN leaders working dinner that night. Trump will then fly to Tokyo on Monday and meet recently-inaugurated Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi on Tuesday.

Trump will fly to the South Korean port city of Busan on Wednesday where he will meet with President Lee Jae Myung before delivering remarks at the APEC CEO luncheon and will attend a US-APEC leaders working dinner that evening.

Speculation had mounted that Trump could meet with Kim in the de-militarized zone between the Koreas during the stop. They last met in 2019 during Trump's first term as the US president held a surprise sit down with Kim as and sought to broker a denuclearization agreement with Pyongyang that never materialized.