South Korean President Lee Jae Myung asked US President Donald Trump to play a leading role in efforts to find a peaceful solution to tensions with North Korea in a brief meeting on the sidelines of the G7 summit.
According to the South Korean Presidential Office, the exchange took place when G7 leaders took group photos. Spokesperson Kang Yu Jung said that Mr. Trump asked Mr. Lee about the current situation of relations with North Korea.
In response, President Lee asked the US leader to lead efforts to resolve the North Korean issue peacefully, similar to how Mr. Trump did with the conflict in the Middle East. According to Ms. Kang Yu Jung, Mr. Trump replied that he would strive to resolve the North Korean issue.
Diplomatic relations between Washington and Pyongyang once attracted global attention during Mr. Trump's first term. At that time, Mr. Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un had 3 direct meetings.
The meetings included the summit in Singapore in 2018, the conference in Hanoi in 2019 and the meeting in the same year in the Demilitarized Zone between the two Koreas. At this event, Mr. Trump became the first incumbent US president to set foot on North Korean territory.
However, the diplomatic process was then stalled when the parties failed to reach an agreement on lifting North Korea's nuclear program as well as easing US-led sanctions.
Recently, Mr. Trump has repeatedly signaled his desire to resume direct dialogue with Mr. Kim Jong Un. In August 2025, he said he looked forward to meeting the North Korean leader at a "suitable time in the future". In October of the same year, he continued to say that he "very much wants" to meet Mr. Kim again.
Last week, Mr. Trump also posted on the social network Truth Social a photo taken with Mr. Kim Jong Un without any captions, a move seen as a reminiscence of the previous diplomatic period between the two sides.
