Trump Pushes for Kim Jong Un Summit This Fall as US and South Korea Cut Joint Military Drills in Half

President Trump is pushing aides to arrange an in-person meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un as soon as this fall, with a possible encounter tied to Trump's next trip to Asia, which could come in November. As a diplomatic signal ahead of any potential summit, the US and South Korea have agreed to slash their joint military drills by half, with a Pentagon official confirming the current joint exercise will also end one week ahead of schedule. Officials said the changes to the drills will maintain readiness and key training goals.

South Korea is separately seeking a presidential summit with China on the sidelines of the APEC gathering in Shenzhen, adding another layer of regional diplomacy to the picture. Trump previously attempted nuclear negotiations with Kim during his first term, but North Korea's weapons program has continued to grow in the years since those talks collapsed. In a separate foreign policy development, the Trump administration has halted talks with Iran and shifted to a strategy of sustained economic and military pressure, a pivot US officials say is aimed at wearing down Tehran over time, now 171 days into that conflict.