The future of Donald Trump and Kim Jong-Un’s curious relationship

“Singapore had given Kim Jong Un some prestige and the belief that finally, the United States is coming to its senses and talking to me on my own terms,” says Mr Seiler.

“He came to the table expecting, because he had been coached, we know, quietly, by the South Koreans who were saying, Donald Trump is politically desperate, he is no longer listening to John Bolton, he is willing to agree to a deal that puts a small part of your nuclear program on the table in return for sanctions relief.”

But the president had also been briefed. He had been told that the North could still produce uranium at an enrichment centre near Pyongyang. The U.S. said it had been monitoring other sites the North thought they’d kept secret for some time.

“I think that they were surprised that we knew,” Trump later said.

The deal Kim offered was not nothing, but it was not good enough for the US president. “Kim Jong Un comes to the table and he had no plan B,” says Mr Seiler.

“So, when Donald Trump says we’ve got to do more than this, Kim Jong Un remains totally inflexible.”