US President Donald Trump has said he hopes to meet again with North Korea's Kim Jong Un, possibly this year, as he held White House talks with South Korea's new leader that got off awkwardly.

Hours before President Lee Jae Myung arrived for his long-planned first visit to the White House, Trump took to social media to denounce what he said was a "Purge or Revolution" in South Korea, apparently over raids that involved churches.

Forty minutes into an Oval Office meeting in which Lee profusely praised Trump, the US leader dismissed his own sharply worded rebuke, saying, "I'm sure it's a misunderstanding" as "there is a rumour going around."

Trump said he believed he was on the same page on North Korea as Lee, a progressive who supports diplomacy over confrontation.

Trump, who met Kim Jong Un three times in his first term, hailed his relationship with the young totalitarian and said he knew him "better than anybody, almost, other than his sister."

"Someday I'll see him. I look forward to seeing him. He was very good with me," Trump told reporters, saying he hoped the talks would take place this year.

North Korea did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Trump's remarks.

Its state media said later that US-South Korea joint military drills proved Washington's intention to "occupy" the Korean peninsula and target countries in the region.

Lee, deploying a well-worn strategy by Trump's foreign visitors, talked golf and lavished praise on the Republican president's interior decorating and peacemaking. He told reporters earlier that he had read the president's 1987 memoir, "Trump: The Art of the Deal," to prepare.

He also encouraged Trump to engage with North Korea.

"I hope you can bring peace to the Korean Peninsula, the only divided nation in the world, so that you can meet with Kim Jong Un, build a Trump World (real-estate complex) in North Korea so that I can play golf there, and so that you can truly play a role as a world-historical peacemaker," Lee said, speaking in Korean.

Lee spoke through an interpreter, breaking the pace of Trump, who does not hesitate to pick fights with his guests.

Trump, who frequently accuses European allies of freeloading off the United States, made clear he would press hard for greater compensation by South Korea over the 28,500 US troops in the country.

He suggested the United States could seek to take over base land, an idea likely to enrage Lee's brethren on the South Korean left.

"We spent a lot of money building a fort, and there was a contribution made by South Korea, but I would like to see if we could get rid of the lease and get ownership of the land where we have a massive military base," Trump said. (Agencies)
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Last updated: 2025-08-26 HKT 07:27