Scoop: Trump admin game-planning for potential North Korea talks

Source: Axios

11 hours ago


The Trump administration has quietly been holding discussions and consulting outside experts as it considers options for potentially restarting dialogue with North Korea, a senior U.S. official and three additional sources familiar with those discussions tell Axios.

Why it matters: North Korea has made alarming nuclear advances since President Trump and Kim Jong-un held two dramatic but ultimately failed summits. While nothing appears imminent, Trump has made clear he'd like to reconnect with Kim — perhaps face-to-face — and his national security team is preparing for that scenario.

State of play: North Korea is relatively low on Trump's priority list for now, but the world's newest nuclear power rarely stays off the international agenda for long.

"We are convening agencies to understand where the north Koreans are today. A lot has changed in the last four years. We are evaluating, diagnosing and talking about potential avenues, including engagement," the senior U.S. official said.

The "closed-door discussions" involving think tank experts and current and former U.S. officials "suggest the Trump administration is sizing out different scenarios for another Trump-Kim meeting," said Andrew Yeo, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution. Trump's "many positive statements" about Kim over the past six months suggest he's interested in that path, Yeo added.

A former senior U.S. official said members of the administration were doing some "initial planning," knowing that it might only take "one flowery letter" from Kim to catch Trump's attention, "then you're off to the races."

Behind the scenes: The Swedish ambassador to North Korea, who represents U.S. interests in the country, visited Washington last week for consultations with U.S. officials and experts

One source familiar with the visit said it was mostly about taking the temperature in Washington on engagement with Pyongyang.

Officials from the State Department and National Security Council have also taken part in multiple roundtable discussions with outside experts on North Korea.

One of the topics raised in those closed-door meetings was who the North Korean interlocutors are likely to be if talks do start, one of the sources said.

Read more: https://www.axios.com/2025/04/27/north-korea-talks-kim-jong-un-trump