President Trump open to meet with Kim Jong Un

(NBC, KYMA) - President Donald Trump is open to a new meeting with Kim Jong Un at the appropriate time, a White House official told NBC News, but no date has been set and no formal planning has started on a potential visit.

Joint military exercises underway between the United States and South Korea are being cut short, both countries said after the president ordered that they be reduced and cited his very good relationship with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

The surprise announcement drew suggestions that President Trump may want to revive his bid to strike a grand bargain with Kim over his isolated regime's nuclear arsenal.

The president is expected to travel to Asia this fall to attend several summits, including the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation gathering in Shenzhen, China in November, but it's unclear whether any possible meeting would be set up around that timeframe.

Trump, who met with Kim three times during his first term in office, has mused publicly about resuming their earlier diplomacy, which collapsed in 2019.

Kim, whose position has strengthened considerably since Trump's first term, has rebuffed recent overtures from the U.S. President as well as South Korean Myung, saying he will not come to the table unless they drop their demands for North Korea to denuclearize first.

Trump said Monday that Kim had responded to his overtures after he ordered the United States to scale back military exercises with South Korea.