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United States President Donald Trump has once again stirred debate over his unconventional approach to North Korea, describing its leader Kim Jong Un as a personal friend and suggesting that Pyongyang’s growing nuclear arsenal poses no immediate concern so long as he remains in office. The comments, made during an exchange with reporters in Washington, DC, on Tuesday, came in response to a pointed question about why North Korea is permitted to possess nuclear weapons while Iran is not.
Trump’s answer leaned heavily on personal diplomacy rather than policy specifics. He attributed the disparity to leadership differences between his administration and those of his predecessors, arguing that earlier presidents had missed opportunities to stop North Korea’s nuclear program. “You had a different president, and they could have stopped him,” Trump said, without naming any specific former president. He then pivoted to his relationship with Kim, stating that the North Korean leader considers him a friend and that he reciprocates those feelings.
The US president went further, claiming that Kim’s affinity for him is unique on the world stage. “He likes Trump, doesn’t like a lot of other people. I’m about the only person in the entire world that he likes, and I like him,” Trump said. Such remarks echo the personal chemistry the two leaders displayed during their unprecedented summits in 2018 and 2019, when Trump became the first sitting US president to meet a North Korean leader. Those meetings, held in Singapore, Hanoi, and at the Demilitarized Zone separating the two Koreas, were initially hailed as breakthroughs but ultimately collapsed over US demands for complete denuclearization.
Trump also sought to minimize the scale of North Korea’s nuclear capabilities, acknowledging they are “pretty large” but insisting they are “not like us,” a reference to the far larger US nuclear arsenal. He then offered a reassurance that appeared to hinge entirely on his personal rapport with Kim: “As long as I’m around, he’s going to be fine. You know why? Because he respects me and he likes me.” The remark raises questions about what might happen to US-North Korea relations after Trump leaves office, and whether Washington has a sustainable strategy for dealing with Pyongyang beyond the president’s personal ties.
The comments come amid heightened tension over nuclear proliferation in another part of the world. The United States and Israel launched a war against Iran on February 28, with Trump justifying the conflict by asserting that Tehran could not be allowed to obtain a nuclear weapon. Iran has consistently denied seeking such a weapon, pointing to its 2015 agreement with world powers that curtailed its nuclear program in exchange for sanctions relief. Trump withdrew the United States from that deal in 2018 during his first term, a decision that critics say set the stage for the current military confrontation.
The war on Iran, now in its eighth month, has had far-reaching consequences. It has disrupted global energy supplies, driven up fuel costs, and contributed to a decline in Trump’s domestic popularity as the November midterm elections approach. Against this backdrop, the president’s willingness to tolerate North Korea’s nuclear arsenal while waging war to prevent Iran from acquiring one has drawn accusations of inconsistency and hypocrisy from critics. The question posed by the reporter on Tuesday appeared designed to probe exactly that contradiction.
In response, Trump did not offer a strategic rationale but instead focused on personalities and timing. He suggested that North Korea’s nuclear program could have been halted under a different president, implying that his predecessors bore responsibility for the current situation. This argument overlooks the fact that North Korea conducted its first nuclear test in 2006 and has since conducted multiple tests under both Republican and Democratic administrations. Pyongyang formally declared itself a nuclear weapons state in 2009 and has repeatedly stated that its arsenal is non-negotiable.
Since the collapse of diplomacy with Trump, Kim has significantly expanded his inventory of nuclear-capable missiles and deepened his international alliances. North Korea has aligned itself with Russia over Moscow’s war in Ukraine, providing military support and receiving technological assistance in return, according to Western intelligence assessments. It has also tightened relations with China, its longtime economic lifeline. These moves have reduced North Korea’s isolation and strengthened its leverage in any future negotiations with Washington.
Estimates of North Korea’s nuclear stockpile vary. South Korea’s Defence Minister Ahn Gyu-back said last week that the North possesses between 80 and 120 nuclear warheads. That figure is substantially higher than Trump’s recent public assertion that Pyongyang has 57 nuclear weapons. The discrepancy highlights the uncertainty surrounding North Korea’s capabilities and the challenges facing intelligence agencies tasked with monitoring a secretive regime that rarely discloses details of its arsenal.
Trump has said he plans to hold in-person talks with Kim before the end of the year, a prospect he first raised earlier in his current term. However, North Korea has not formally committed to such a meeting. In August, Kim’s sister, Kim Yo Jong, dismissed the possibility of talks with what she described as a hostile United States, signaling that Pyongyang sees little incentive to return to the negotiating table on Washington’s terms. Any summit would likely require the US to soften its demand for complete denuclearization, a position that has been a cornerstone of American policy for decades.
The president’s latest remarks are likely to reassure those who believe personal diplomacy can reduce tensions on the Korean Peninsula, but they will alarm others who see them as a dangerous signal that Washington is willing to accept a nuclear North Korea. For US allies in the region, particularly South Korea and Japan, the comments may deepen concerns about the reliability of American security guarantees. Both countries host significant US military presence and rely on the extended deterrence provided by the US nuclear umbrella.
Trump’s friendly language toward Kim also stands in sharp contrast to his approach toward Iran, where he has chosen military action over negotiation. The inconsistency is not lost on international observers, who note that North Korea already possesses the weapons Iran is accused of seeking. If the goal of the Iran war is to prevent proliferation, critics argue, then tolerating North Korea’s arsenal undermines that objective and sends a confusing message to other would-be nuclear states.
For now, the president appears content to rely on his personal relationship with Kim as the primary safeguard against conflict. Whether that approach can endure beyond his presidency, or whether it can prevent further North Korean nuclear advances, remains an open question. What is clear is that Trump’s comments have once again placed the contradictions of US nuclear policy at the center of global attention, at a time when war with Iran is already straining the international order.
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