South Korean president asks Trump to lead peaceful diplomacy with North Korea

South Korean President Lee Jae-myung asked United States President Donald Trump to take the lead in seeking a peaceful resolution to tensions with North Korea during a brief conversation at the Group of Seven (G7) summit on Tuesday, the South Korean president's office said.

The two leaders exchanged greetings during a photo op for the G7 summit, presidential spokeswoman Kang Yu-jung said. Trump asked Lee about the current state of relations with North Korea.

Lee asked Trump to lead efforts to peacefully resolve the North Korean issue, as he has done with regard to the war in the Middle East, his office said in a statement. Trump responded that he would work to resolve the North Korean issue, Kang said.

In a joint statement issued Wednesday after the summit, G7 leaders expressed "deep concern" about North Korea's nuclear and ballistic missile programs and reiterated their commitment to "the complete denuclearization of North Korea in accordance with United Nations Security Council resolutions."

The leaders also called on North Korea to resolve the issue of Japanese citizens abducted by Pyongyang, and stressed the need for joint action against cryptocurrency thefts and cybercrime that the country is accused of.

Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un met three times during Trump's first term, including a historic summit in Singapore in 2018, a second summit in Hanoi in 2019, and a meeting later that year at the Demilitarized Zone between the two Koreas, when Trump became the first sitting US president to set foot on North Korean soil.

The diplomatic process fell apart after the Hanoi summit, which failed to result in an agreement to dismantle North Korea's nuclear program and ease U.S.-led sanctions.

Trump has repeatedly expressed interest in resuming direct diplomacy with Kim. In August 2025, he said he looked forward to meeting the North Korean leader “at an appropriate time in the future,” and in October he said he would “love” to meet with him again.

Last week, Trump posted a photo of himself and Kim Jong Un on the social network Truth Social without any caption, which was interpreted as a reminder of their previous diplomacy.

South Korean Unification Minister Chung Dong-yong said on Monday that he saw the move as a "good signal" that Trump was ready to commit to a meeting with Kim after the conflict with Iran was resolved, local media reported.