Anchor: U.S. President Donald Trump is on his way to Malaysia, his first stop on a diplomatic tour of Asia that will also bring him to Japan and finally South Korea. While aboard Air Force One, he told reporters he is open to meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.
Kim Bum-soo reports.

Report: U.S. President Donald Trump says he is willing to meet North Korean leader Kim Jong-un during his visit to South Korea next week.

Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One on Friday, Trump said he’d be “open 100 percent” to a meeting with Kim.

[Sound bite: US President Donald Trump] 
(Reporter: “Do you have any plans to meet with Kim Jong-un?”)
Trump: “I would if he would contact, I mean I was, the last time I met, I put it out over the internet that I’m coming to South Korea, if he’d like to meet, I’m open to it. I’d do it, if you want to put out the word I’m open to it.”

Trump is scheduled to arrive in South Korea on Wednesday next week ahead of this year’s APEC summit, set to take place in the southeastern city of Gyeongju.

Summit talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping are scheduled Thursday morning, but Trump’s plans in the afternoon before he departs for Washington are unknown. 

[Sound bite: US President Donald Trump] 
(Reporter: “ … in touch with him before this trip?”)
Trump: “There’s not a lot of ways other than the internet. They have very little telephonic service, but he knows I’m coming, and he would, I’ll be open to it 100 percent. I got along very well with him, Kim Jong-un.”

During his first term in office, the U.S. president held three in-person talks with Kim, including a surprise meeting in the inter-Korean truce village of Panmunjeom in June 2019.

Ahead of Trump’s upcoming visit to South Korea, field trips to the truce village by Seoul’s unification ministry have been temporarily suspended.

While urging Trump and Kim to hold talks, Seoul’s unification minister told reporters on Friday that North Korean authorities had started cleaning up an area on their side of the border village, sparking speculation that the North could be preparing for an event there. 
Kim Bum-soo, KBS World Radio News.