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South Korean President Lee Jae-myung and U.S. President Donald Trump share a laugh during their summit in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, D.C., on August 25. / Source: AP, Yonhap

U.S. President Donald Trump said on August 25 that he plans to visit South Korea later this year and expressed a desire to meet North Korean leader Kim Jong Un during the trip, raising speculation about a surprise encounter at Panmunjom similar to their 2019 meeting.

Speaking alongside South Korean President Lee Jae-myung in the Oval Office, Trump confirmed he would attend the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit to be held October 30–November 1 in Gyeongju. Asked if he might meet Kim this year, Trump replied, “It’s hard to say, but I’d like to meet him this year. I had a very good relationship with him, and still do. It’s good to get along with Kim Jong Un.”

Trump, who in 2019 walked across the Demilitarized Zone into North Korea for his third meeting with Kim, repeatedly raised the issue of restarting dialogue with Pyongyang during his talks with Lee.

When questioned about reducing U.S. Forces Korea, Trump declined to comment directly, saying, “I don’t want to talk about that now, because we are friends.” But he then raised a new issue: ownership of land currently leased for U.S. bases.

“The land where we have a big fort in Korea, we don’t own it — we lease it,” Trump said. “One of the things I’d like is for South Korea to give us ownership. We’ve spent a tremendous amount of money building bases. Korea contributed, but I want the ownership. We should eliminate the lease and have the land where we station our large forces.”

Observers compared the remark to Trump’s previous suggestion of purchasing Greenland from Denmark.

The summit also touched on South Korea’s ongoing special investigations. Trump referred to reports from U.S. intelligence about recent raids, including searches of Seoul’s Yoido Full Gospel Church and Osan Air Base. Lee explained that parliament-appointed prosecutors had investigated domestic institutions and that the Osan search targeted South Korean Air Force facilities, not U.S. ones.

Trump suggested continuing the discussion during an expanded luncheon session and shifted to other questions. Earlier, while signing an executive order, he had told reporters he was “disturbed” to hear South Korea’s new government had “raided churches and entered military bases,” warning “we will not tolerate such things.”

He also incorrectly stated that more than 40,000 U.S. troops are stationed in South Korea; the actual figure is about 28,500.