U.S. President Donald Trump said Monday that he hopes to meet with Kim Jong Un, the top leader of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), later this year.

Speaking to reporters at the White House at the start of his meeting with visiting Republic of Korea (ROK) President Lee Jae-myung, Trump said he maintains a "very good relationship" with Kim and looks forward to meeting him again.

"I get along with him really well. I think he has a country of great potential, tremendous potential," Trump said.

During Trump's first presidential term, he and Kim first met in Singapore in June 2018, marking the first-ever U.S.-DPRK summit. They met again in Hanoi, Vietnam in February 2019, and later that June in the inter-Korean border village of Panmunjom.

First Trump-Lee meeting

Trump and Lee held their first meeting in tense circumstances. The U.S. president lodged vague complaints about a "Purge or Revolution" in the ROK on social media before later walking the comments back as a likely "misunderstanding" between the allies.

Despite clinching a trade deal in July that spared ROK exports harsher U.S. tariffs, the two sides continue to wrangle over nuclear energy, military spending, and details of a trade deal that included $350 billion in promised ROK investments in the United States. The ROK's economy relies heavily on the U.S.

Lee, deploying a well-worn strategy by foreign visitors to the Trump White House, talked golf and lavished praise on the Republican president's interior decorating and peacemaking. He told reporters earlier that he had read the president's 1987 memoir, "Trump: The Art of the Deal," to prepare. As the leaders met, Lee encouraged Trump to engage with the DPRK.

Asked whether he would reduce U.S. troop numbers stationed in the ROK to give Washington more flexibility in the region, Trump told reporters, "I don't want to say that now," but suggested that the ROK might consider giving the U.S. ownership of "the land where we have the big fort," a possible reference to Camp Humphreys, a U.S. Army garrison in the country.

Trump has also called Seoul a "money machine" that takes advantage of American military protection.

(With input from Xinhua, Reuters)