U.S. President Donald Trump waves as he departs for travel to the G20 Summit in Osaka, Japan at the White House in Washington, U.S., June 26. Reuters-Yonhap

U.S. President Donald Trump departed for Asia on Wednesday amid keen interest in his next steps in the stalled effort to dismantle North Korea's nuclear weapons program.

Trump was headed for Osaka, Japan, where he will attend a Group of 20 summit before traveling to South Korea late Saturday for a two-day stay.

It will be his second visit to South Korea as president following the first trip in November 2017. That visit came amid heightened tensions over North Korea's tests of nuclear weapons and intercontinental ballistic missiles capable of reaching the U.S. mainland.

This time, Trump's visit follows more than a year of historic diplomacy aimed at getting rid of the regime's nuclear and ballistic missile capabilities ― including two summits between Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.

But talks between Washington and Pyongyang have stalled since the second summit in February ended without a deal, and critics argue the diplomacy has yielded little, if any, progress on denuclearization.

North Korea's leader Kim Jong-un and U.S. President Donald Trump talk in the garden of the Metropole hotel during the second North Korea-U.S. summit in Hanoi, Vietnam February 28, 2019. Reuters-Yonhap

When asked by a reporter if he will meet with Kim during his trip, Trump ruled out that option.

"I'll be meeting with a lot of other people, not by him," he said before boarding Marine One at the White House. "But I may be speaking to him in a different form."

Trump did not elaborate.

There was speculation earlier that he could see Kim inside the Demilitarized Zone on the inter-Korean border, but a senior U.S. official denied any plans for a meeting.