Trump Floats Potential Meeting With Kim Jong Un During Asia Trip

(Bloomberg) -- President Donald Trump said he might meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un during an upcoming trip to Asia, stoking speculation about renewed US outreach to the reclusive regime.

"I may," Trump told reporters Monday when asked if he would meet with Kim during his trip. "That would be exciting."

Trump is slated to travel next month to the region, where he's expected to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Shenzhen, China.

Trump has raised the prospect of another meeting with Kim in recent weeks, indicating he would like it to happen this year. The two leaders met thrice during the US president's first term, though those discussions failed to produce any diplomatic breakthroughs.

Still, Trump has repeatedly touted what he describes as warm relations between him and Kim. "I get along with him," Trump said on Monday.

Earlier this month, Trump also met with basketball star Dennis Rodman, who has traveled to North Korea multiple times and has had an unusual friendship with Kim.

North Korea has continued with a series of missile launches that have ratcheted up tensions in the region. On Monday, it fired multiple ballistic missiles off its east coast, South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff said. It marked Pyongyang's fourth ballistic missile test in about a month.

Trump's overtures to North Korea come at a delicate moment in US-South Korea relations, with the two countries at odds over trade and security.

The US president has threatened to hit South Korea with new trade penalties if it does not follow through with an investment in a liquefied natural gas project in Alaska, a $54 billion plan he has hailed as a centerpiece of Seoul's $350 billion investment commitment. The South Korean government has said it only agreed to the project if it proves economically viable.

In August, Trump ordered the Pentagon to scale back military exercises with South Korea, citing his frustration that Seoul declined to support US military operations against Iran and saying the drills sent an "inappropriate signal" to North Korea.