North Korea likely to pursue talks with US early next year, spy agency speculates

The National Intelligence Service (NIS)'s chief Lee Jong-suk attends a parliamentary audit in Seoul on Nov. 4, 2025. YonhapSEOUL, November 5 (AJP) - North Korea will likely respond to U.S. President Donald Trump's repeated overtures after all, South Korea's spy agency believes.

According to lawmakers who were briefed in a closed-door parliamentary audit at the National Intelligence Service (NIS)'s headquarters in southern Seoul on Tuesday, Pyongyang is expected to "pursue dialogue" with Washington sometime in March next year when South Korea conducts its annual joint military exercise with the U.S.

But the NIS later clarified that it did not predict a summit at that time. It instead speculated that a turning point for the talks could come in March, coinciding with the exercise, as North Korea may want to leverage its close ties with Russia and improved relations with its traditional ally China.

Backing up this assessment, the NIS said it detected several signs that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un had been preparing for a meeting with Trump until the last minute just ahead of last week's Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Gyeongju, although their first rendezvous since Trump's inauguration for his second term did not ultimately materialize.

Trump had repeatedly expressed his desire to meet Kim during his trip to South Korea on the sidelines of the multilateral gathering, but Kim remained silent, and Trump’s overtures were met only with a couple of missile launches.

"North Korea stressed its close relationship with Trump, suggesting that it considered a summit until the very last moment and may pursue talks later once conditions are met," said Park Sun-won of the ruling Democratic Party (DP), quoting the NIS.

"Evidence obtained through various channels and sources suggests that North Korea had apparently been preparing for talks with the U.S. behind the scenes," added Lee Seong-kweun of the main opposition People Power Party (PPP).

Since late September, North Korea has deliberately refrained from claiming its "nuclear power" status, a shift in its rhetoric and stance, while hinting at an intention to engage in talks with the U.S., provided that denuclearization is not included on the agenda, according to the NIS.

Pyongyang has also been gathering intelligence on senior officials and other key figures involved in North Korean affairs in Washington, another signal of possible talks, although it still remains to be seen.

Trump met Kim three times during his first term -- their first summit in Singapore in June 2018, a second summit in Hanoi in February 2019 that ended in failure, and a brief meeting at the border truce village of Panmunjom four months later. Since then, Trump has claimed on several occasions that he maintains a "good relationship" with Kim.
Lee Hugh innis@ajupress.com