During Trump's first term, Kim called Trump a “mentally deranged US dotard” and threatened that he had use of a "nuclear button" on his desk.

Updated on: Aug 19, 2026, 22:41:34 IST

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US President Donald Trump said Wednesday that he planned to meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, and said the Asian nation held 57 "very powerful" nuclear weapons.

The remarks come as Trump ordered Pentagon officials to cut short joint exercises with the South Korean military, writing in a Sunday social media post that they sent a message to Pyongyang that was "totally inappropriate and hostile, to a Country that, as long as Donald J. Trump has been President, has been unthreatening and respectful."

During Trump's first term, Kim called Trump a “mentally deranged U.S. dotard” and threatened that he had use of a "nuclear button" on his desk. The leaders' relationship cooled after face-to-face meetings in 2018 and 2019, including a brief exchange at the demilitarized zone between the Koreas in which Trump became the first sitting U.S. president to step into North Korean territory.

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