President Trump defied all expectations when he announced in March that he would meet with North Korean strongman Kim Jong Un to negotiate the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula. For the first time ever, a U.S. president would sit with a North Korean dictator to negotiate peaceful disarmament. And the president has played his cards well, using a combination of sweeteners and threats in the lead-up to the summit to ensure he gets the best deal available.

In advance of the summit between the two leaders, Kim attempted to position himself as a cooperating negotiating partner, meeting with then-CIA chief Mike Pompeo, suspending nuclear and long-range missile tests, and ordering the release of three Americans who had been imprisoned. But despite these shows of goodwill, the North Korean regime was still holding back on the one issue that mattered most: denuclearization.