Former Pentagon official expects Trump to seek reengagement with Kim Jong-un

US President-elect Donald Trump may seek to reengage with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un "at some point," though the dynamics of their meeting will differ due to Pyongyang's progress in its weapons programs and Russia's backing for the regime, a former Pentagon official said Thursday.

Randall Schriver, who served as the assistant secretary of defense for Indo-Pacific security affairs during Trump's first term, made the remarks amid expectations that Trump could try to revive his direct personal diplomacy with Kim after he takes office in January.

"I suspect he will want to reengage with Kim Jong-un at some point. It'll be a very different dynamic than in the first term -- the novelty of it, just the fact of the meetings was so significant. But this is a Kim Jong-un that's in a different place," Schriver said during a forum hosted by the Hudson Institute.

"He's got more abilities now. He did not halt their progress toward more capable strategic systems. He's got, presumably, the backing of Putin ... and more international standing because of that," he added.

Schriver anticipated that if held, future engagement between Washington and Pyongyang will go "broader than the nuclear issue."

"I suspect the engagement would have a broader scope, and the full range of issues that we've talked about in the context of pursuing denuclearization will be on the table," he said. "So enhancing the political relationship through representation in capitals, perhaps some modest development assistance and economic cooperation, perhaps reintroducing the idea of an end to the Korean War ... I suspect those things will be on the table."

The former official recalled the no-deal summit that Trump and Kim had in 2019 in Hanoi.

"I think President Trump ... although he said in Hanoi from the podium (that) sometimes it's the right thing just to walk away from a bad deal, he wasn't happy that he didn't get a deal," he said. "I think he understands that the nuclear issue is extraordinarily difficult to pry them away through diplomacy."

Schriver had been deeply involved in preparations for Trump-Kim summits, including the first-ever bilateral summit in Singapore in 2018. (Yonhap)