The Koreas | Diplomacy | East Asia

Lee Asks Trump to Help Revive North Korea Talks During New York Trip

During a Lee-Trump meeting at the U.N. General Assembly, Seoul said the U.S. president reaffirmed his willingness to talk with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

South Korean President Lee Jae-myung meets with U.S. President Donald Trump on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly in New York, Sep. 22, 2026.

South Korean President Lee Jae-myung asked U.S. President Donald Trump to help restart talks between the United States and North Korea in an unannounced meeting on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly on September 22, according to the Blue House, the presidential office of South Korea. The Blue House also said that Trump reaffirmed his willingness to engage with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

The talks were arranged at the last minute. In the 30-minute meeting. Lee asked Trump to create a breakthrough amid almost no direct contact between the two Koreas. The two leaders also agreed to communicate closely as “peacemakers and pacemakers,” according to the Blue House. 

Trump has been courting Kim since August, when he scaled back a major joint military exercise with South Korea. A day later, he said Kim had responded to his request for dialogue, calling the exchange very positive without offering details. Trump has since signaled he hopes to meet Kim before the end of the year – possibly during the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Shenzhen, China, this November. 

Yet North Korea denied any direct contact in a statement by Kim Yo Jong, the powerful sister of Kim Jong Un. She described the relationship between the two leaders as “excellent” while insisting that Washington had not changed its hostile policy. She also said North Korea was not impressed by the reduction in scale of the South Korea-U.S. joint exercises, calling it “unworthy of comment.”

Lee had made the case for reopening dialogue earlier on September 22 in an address to the General Assembly. In the speech, Lee said he hoped to see the long-suspended dialogue between North Korea and the United States resume without delay. He also added that his administration would lay the groundwork for talks among the parties aimed at formally ending the Korean War.

On North Korean weapons, Lee outlined a sequence that would begin with a halt to further advances in North Korean nuclear and missile capabilities. Then reductions would follow over the medium term, with the ultimate goal of a Korean Peninsula free of nuclear weapons. Lee credited Trump with creating a hard-won opportunity for change and pledged to act as a “pacemaker” for peace.

The speech came a day after the foreign ministers of South Korea, the U.S., and Japan reaffirmed their commitment to the complete denuclearization of North Korea in a joint statement issued on the sidelines of the same General Assembly session. The statement also urged Pyongyang to return to talks. 

North Korean Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui denounced the joint statement on September 24, declaring in a message carried by state media that the will of her country to keep nuclear weapons........

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