Editor’s note: A previous version of this story stated that Kim Jong Un is currently 27 years old. In fact, he was 27 when he assumed power in North Korea. He is currently 33 years old. Global News regrets the error.
U.S. President Donald Trump says he is open to meeting with the 33-year-old North Korean dictator, Kim Jong Un.
Trump told Bloomberg in a new interview that North Korea has become the most urgent national security threat facing the Trump administration. Since Trump took office in January, tensions with North Korea have been on the rise. Trump’s administration has said in the past that all options, including a military strike, are still on the table.
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“If it would be appropriate for me to meet with him, I would absolutely, I would be honoured to do it,” Trump said Monday in an interview with Bloomberg. “If it’s under the, again, under the right circumstances. But I would do that.”
Trump went on to explain that “most political people would never say,” they’d be open to meeting with Kim. But he adds: “I’m telling you, under the right circumstances, I would meet with him. We have breaking news.”
Press Secretary Sean Spicer defended Trump’s statements Monday afternoon, saying that while the president understands the threat posed by North Korea, Kim Jong Un is “still a head of state, so there’s a diplomatic piece to this.”
North Korea has been aggressive in its nuclear weapons testing as of late, prompting United States lawmakers to send a nuclear-powered USS Carl Vinson aircraft carrier to the Korean peninsula to join drills with South Korea to defend against the heightened northern threat.
North Korea labelled these and other American military maneuvers in the area as “intimidation and blackmail.” The isolated country has continued to barrel towards nuclear strength and pledged previously to enhance its military force “to the maximum” in a “consecutive and successive way at any moment.”
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Since taking over for his father in 2011, Kim has never met with another foreign leader and reportedly hasn’t left North Korea at all. Trump, however, seems open to meeting with controversial figures.
Earlier Monday, the White House was criticized for Trump’s decision to invite Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte to Washington. The White House countered that the Philippines’ co-operation was needed to counter offensives by North Korea. Global News previously reported that Duterte is accused by international rights groups of supporting a slew of extrajudicial killings of drug suspects in the Philippines.
WATCH: Trump willing to meet Kim Jong Un under ‘right circumstances’
Reince Priebus told ABC’s This Week that the invite doesn’t mean that human rights don’t matter, but rather that the issues coming out of North Korea are so severe that the United States needs to solicit the co-operation of as many partners in the area as possible.
In the past Trump has also spared positive words for Russian President Vladimir Putin, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, — who he hosted at the White House — and Chinese President Xi Jinping
— With files from Bloomberg and the Associated Press
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