US President Donald Trump said on Wednesday that he planned to meet North Korean leader Kim Jong-un later this year, despite Pyongyang denying that the two leaders were in direct communication.

“Yeah, I will be,” Trump told reporters when asked whether he expected to meet Kim before the end of 2026.

Trump, speaking during a tour of a new helipad under construction at the White House, provided no details about where or when a meeting might take place.

Any encounter would be the first between the two leaders since Trump returned to the White House and would represent his latest attempt to revive the personal diplomacy that defined his approach to North Korea during his first term.

Trump also offered an unusually specific public estimate of Pyongyang’s nuclear arsenal, saying Kim possessed 57 “very powerful” nuclear weapons.