In October 2025, President Trump practically begged Kim Jong Un to meet with him on a swing through Asia. The answer was no. Then in August 2026, after he scaled back military drills with South Korea – giving Kim Jong Un a huge gift on a silver platter – the U.S. president boasted about his friendship and “very good relationship” with Kim, adding that they “understand” one other. He also claimed, without evidence, that the North Korean leader had responded “positively” to his request for a meeting by the end of the year. Again, there was the sound of crickets from North Korea.

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This is not good. In 2024, the Annual Threat Assessment from the U.S. Director of National Intelligence warned that “the expansion of nuclear weapons stockpiles and their delivery systems, coupled with increasing regional conflict involving nuclear weapons states, pose a significant challenge to global efforts to prevent the spread and use of nuclear weapons. China and Russia are seeking to ensure strategic stability with the United States through the growth and development of a range of weapons capabilities, including nontraditional weapons intended to defeat or evade U.S. missile defenses. Consequently, these new technologies probably will challenge the way states think about arms control, and we expect it will be difficult to achieve agreement on new weapon definitions or verification measures, particularly at the multilateral level. North Korea continues to threaten to conduct a seventh nuclear test and the potential for heightened tension between Pakistan and India could increase the risk of nuclear escalation.”

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Seventh nuclear test, huh? Seems like, despite what Donald Trump would like the world to believe, the June 12, 2018 “summit” (read: photo op) between Kim Jong Un and Donald Trump during Trump’s first term didn’t go quite as planned.

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You know the one, where an American president met with a brutal tyrant and relentlessly praised him as being just another “very, very talented leader” who “wants to do the right thing” while being “very open, very honorable,” and very “worthy.” Donald even complimented the “respect” Little Rocket Man receives from his people: “His country does love him. His people, you see the fervor.” < You better believe there’s fervor. You don’t show fervor in North Korea you get your head chopped off. What is it with this man’s fascination with dictators? >

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After the June 2018 spectacle, a second summit in February 2019 ended early with no deal on nukes and, four months later, Donald Trump swung by North Korea on his way home from the Group of 20 summit in Japan and stepped across the demilitarized zone between North and South Korea, becoming the first sitting U.S. president to step foot in North Korea… yet another visit that ended in no deal.

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However, it seems President Trump didn’t get the memo that the visits with his new buddy were a total bust because on his way home, he tweeted: “There is no longer a Nuclear Threat from North Korea.” …which was a completely delusional thing to say, even for him.

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Right after Trump’s love fest, North Korea repeatedly fired short-range ballistic missiles and rockets, conducted two ground tests at one of its nuclear test sites, and increased production of long-range missiles and the fissile material used in nuclear weapons. One year after the summit, The Wall Street Journal reported that “Siegfried Hecker, a Stanford University nuclear scientist who has visited North Korea’s nuclear facilities, has estimated that North Korea might be capable of producing six or seven nuclear bombs a year.”

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In May 2020, Kim Jong Un made it clear he was evoking “new policies for further increasing” North Korea’s nuclear capabilities. That October, he threw a huge military parade to introduce his humongous new intercontinental ballistic missile… a missile that military experts said, if truly operational, was one of the largest road-mobile ICBMs in the entire world.

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Fast-forward to January 2021, when he made clear where North Korea stands with the U.S.: “Our external political activities must focus on controlling and subjugating the United States, our archenemy and the biggest stumbling block to the development of our revolution” – then launched another ballistic missile, this time off its east coast.

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… and Little Rocket Man hasn’t slowed down one bit since then. Pyongyang is now estimated to have around 60 assembled nuclear warheads in its stockpile and enough fissile material to produce at least 30 more, while continuing to produce additional fissile material.

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The 2025 Annual Threat Assessment confirmed that Kim “remains committed to increasing the number of North Korea’s nuclear warheads and improving its missile capabilities to threaten the Homeland and U.S. forces, citizens, and allies, and to weaken U.S. power in the AsiaPacific region, as evidenced by the pace of the North’s missile flight tests and the regime’s public touting of its uranium enrichment capabilities… North Korea is probably prepared to conduct a nuclear test and continues to flight test ICBMs so Kim can threaten the Homeland. Russia is increasingly supporting North Korea’s nuclear status in exchange for Pyongyang’s support to Moscow’s war against Ukraine.”

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A June 2025 report from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) – the United Nation’s nuclear watchdog – revealed that North Korea’s nuclear test site at Punggye-ri can now support a nuclear test on short notice. The country has increased its missile testing; is working to build a new nuclear-powered submarine; and, on January 4, 2026, test fired hypersonic missiles. Four months later, Kim hosted yet another military parade – with Chinese, Vietnamese and Russian guests of honor – where he unveiled a new intercontinental ballistic missile, which he called his “most powerful” nuclear weapon yet.

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By April 2026, IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi had announced there had been a “very serious” expansion in North Korea’s nuclear weapons production capabilities, including heightened activity at the Yongbyon nuclear site (which has a 5-megawatt reactor, a light water reactor, and reprocessing units).

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< Interesting fact: Although North Korea remains one of the most dangerous and unpredictable threats to the U.S., it was not mentioned even once in the Trump/Vance administration’s new National Security Strategy. Our thought is that Donald Trump didn’t include it because doing so would be an omission of his complete failure to sway his boyfriend during his first term, but whatever. >