Trump’s bombshell boast about Kim Jong Un and their secret letters as he casually reveals his harrowing nuke stockpile

Donald Trump has confirmed he will meet North Korean leader Kim Jong Un later this year, in a further sign of warming relations between the two men despite Pyongyang's continued nuclear build-up. The meeting, first reported by the Wall Street Journal, could take place at November's APEC summit in Shenzhen, China, and follows Trump's recent decision to scale back joint US-South Korea military exercises, which he said sent the wrong signal to North Korea.

Trump revealed that North Korea now holds 57 nuclear weapons, an unusually specific figure not previously reported, and blamed past US administrations for allowing the arsenal to grow. He declined to confirm whether he has exchanged personal letters with Kim, saying only "I can't tell you that." The pair met three times during Trump's first term without securing denuclearisation commitments, and the planned meeting marks a striking shift from Trump's earlier "little rocket man" rhetoric towards a leader he now says he "gets along with".