Trump Says He'll Meet Kim Jong-un This Year, Puts DPRK Arsenal at '57' Nuclear Weapons

President Trump said August 19, 2026 that he expects to meet Kim Jong-un later this year — a day after the Wall Street Journal reported he was pushing aides for a summit, potentially on the sidelines of the APEC leaders' summit in Shenzhen, China this November. Asked if he expected to meet Kim this year, Trump said 'Yeah, I will be,' without elaborating. In the same appearance, Trump for the first time cited a specific figure for North Korea's nuclear arsenal, saying Pyongyang has '57 very powerful nuclear weapons' and adding 'I wouldn't have allowed it. But he's got them. I get along with him very well.' It is unclear how the White House arrived at the number, which sits above SIPRI's ~50 estimate. South Korean Defense Minister Ahn Gyu-back separately estimated North Korea's arsenal at 80 to 120 warheads, a considerably higher range, while acknowledging an exact count is impossible to verify.