Trump plans meeting with North Korea’s Kim Jong Un: 'I get along with him'

President Trump expects to meet with North Korea’s Kim Jong Un later this year, after directing the U.S. military to scale down joint exercises with South Korea.

“Yeah, I will be,” Trump told reporters Wednesday when asked if he planned to meet with Kim, touting the relationship between the leaders.

“The fact that I get him along with him, that’s a good thing, not a bad thing. He has 57 very powerful nuclear weapons. Should have never allowed it to happen. They should have never allowed it. If I were president, I wouldn’t have allowed it. But he’s got them. I get along with him very well,” Trump said.

Trump declined to talk about whether his goal was to engage Kim on denuclearization, or if the two were exchanging letters.

“I didn’t like the fact that we’re doing these massive military exercises, really against North Korea. It was an exercise against North Korea, when I’m friendly with him, when we have, I don’t see anything happening for certainly two and a half years, it’s not going to happen with me, but I don’t see anything happening,” Trump said.

RELATED STORY | Trump orders Pentagon to scale back joint exercises with South Korea

Trump directed the U.S. military to reduce joint military exercises with South Korea Monday.

“These exercises are not only costly, with much of these costs paid for by the United States of America (as usual!), but send a signal that is totally inappropriate and hostile, to a Country that, as long as Donald J. Trump has been President, has been unthreatening and respectful,” Trump wrote on social media.

The move is part of a large discussion on how to ensure South Korea remains “a positive trade partner,” according to a senior administration official.

South Korean officials were not notified in advance, according to South Korean foreign minister Cho Hyun.

“The content that President (of the U.S., Donald) Trump posted on Truth Social was not known in advance by our government or by officials from the U.S. government. Therefore, we were not notified in advance either,” he said during a parliamentary hearing, according to the Associated Press.