Before Trump Meets Kim Jong Un Again, Five Things Must Happen First

President Trump’s August 16 Truth Social post, calling for a reduction in joint U.S.-South Korea military exercises and faulting Seoul for declining to support the U.S. effort against Iran, was widely read as a signal of his desire to reopen personal diplomacy with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. That desire is now confirmed: The Wall Street Journal reported on August 18 that Trump is pushing his aides to arrange a meeting with Kim as soon as this fall, potentially on the sidelines of his November trip to Asia for the APEC summit in Shenzhen, China. Seoul has already responded in kind, cutting this month’s Ulchi Freedom Shield exercise roughly in half after Trump ordered the Pentagon to scale back the drills.

There are compelling reasons to pursue this path now. President Biden’s weakness and incompetent foreign policy allowed North Korea’s nuclear weapons and missile programs to surge, including a record number of missile launches in 2022. There is now an urgent need to strengthen security across the Indo-Pacific, halt North Korea’s nuclear and missile efforts, and cut off Pyongyang’s military support to Russia for the war in Ukraine. Below are five America First steps to advance that objective.

First, dispatch Secretary of State Marco Rubio to Seoul immediately to help turn this fall’s momentum into a concrete summit.

While President Trump is rightly frustrated by limited allied backing for the Iran campaign, South Korea’s Lee Jae Myung government has delivered stronger-than-anticipated cooperation on trade and security. This includes a 7.5 percent rise in South Korea’s 2026 defense budget and an additional $1 billion in support for the 28,500 U.S. troops stationed there. Major shipbuilding agreements between the two countries are expected to expand the U.S. Navy’s capacity. American firms stand to secure large contracts to support South Korea’s development of its first nuclear-powered submarines and its civilian nuclear power program. And unlike several of our European allies, South Korea did not try to undermine the U.S. war effort in Iran by denying access to critical bases or publicly criticizing Trump’s Iran policy. Rubio should evaluate this record and work with Seoul to help finalize the logistics of a Trump-Kim summit this fall, whether as a standalone meeting or timed to the president’s expected November trip to the APEC summit in China.