--- title: Donald Trump Faces Ultimate Test Meeting Kim Jong Un description: U.S. President Donald Trump faces the ultimate test of his dealmaking prowess after agreeing to meet North Korean despot Kim Jong Un by May canonical: https://time.com/5192664/donald-trump-north-korea-kim-jong-un-summit/ author: Charlie Campbell article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2018-03-09T05:33:19.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T04:58:01.432Z article:section: Politics og:title: Dealmaker Donald Trump Faces Ultimate Test with Kim Jong Un og:description: The first ever summit between U.S. and North Korean leaders set to happen by May og:url: https://time.com/5192664/donald-trump-north-korea-kim-jong-un-summit/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc03f5dfe83739c85/69892a4697cdff613a6b498f/rts1msuh.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 5680 og:image:height: 3195 og:image:alt: FILE PHOTO - A combination photo of Kim Jong Un and Donald Trump og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Dealmaker Donald Trump Faces Ultimate Test with Kim Jong Un twitter:description: The first ever summit between U.S. and North Korean leaders set to happen by May twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc03f5dfe83739c85/69892a4697cdff613a6b498f/rts1msuh.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Self-Championed Dealmaker Donald Trump Faces the Ultimate Test Meeting Kim Jong Un > Sponsored content. 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Named editors include Richard Hall (The Brief), Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs (Inside TIME), Eliza Berman (Worth Your Time), Philip Elliott (D.C. Brief), Justin Worland (Future Proof) and Harry Booth (In the Loop). Health Matters is written by TIME's health desk. #### How do I sign up for a TIME newsletter? Go to time.com/newsletters, choose the newsletters you want and enter your email address. There is no cost and no subscription requirement. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-network-2026q3/newsletters?i=4a3c61d7-46af-4688-83d1-194597b066fe&cr=time-nl-network-2026q3-v1)  by [Charlie Campbell / Beijing](https://time.com/author/charlie-campbell/)  ## Charlie Campbell / Beijing Editor at Large Mar 9, 2018 5:33 AM UTC  A combination photo shows a Korean Central News Agency handout of Kim Jong Un released on May 10, 2016, and Donald Trump posing for a photo in New York City, May 17, 2016. A combination photo shows a Korean Central News Agency handout of Kim Jong Un released on May 10, 2016, and Donald Trump posing for a photo in New York City, May 17, 2016. Lucas Jackson—Reuters  by [Charlie Campbell / Beijing](https://time.com/author/charlie-campbell/)  ## Charlie Campbell / Beijing Editor at Large Mar 9, 2018 5:33 AM UTC It’s not yet clear whether there will be hamburgers, as Donald Trump [suggested](http://time.com/4574302/donald-trump-north-korea-kim-jong-un-nuclear-weapons/) he could bond with Kim Jong Un over during his volcanic campaign, but on Thursday the U.S. President made good on his promise to negotiate with the North Korean despot, [agreeing to sit down](http://time.com/5192447/south-korea-north-koreas-kim-jong-un-and-president-trump-to-meet-by-may/?xid=homepage) for historic talks by May, the [first ever](http://time.com/5192579/trump-meets-kim-jong-un-north-korea/) between the heads of the Stalinist state and its longtime American nemesis. In fact, Trump will be only the second world leader Kim has ever met (presuming he first sits down with South Korean President Moon Jae-in). Because to date, the Swiss-educated 34-year-old — a basketball and [Whitney Houston fan](http://www.news.com.au/finance/work/leaders/kim-jongun-what-makes-north-koreas-dictator-tick/news-story/8bde7e0b73b826febcfe758b10a38f26), by all accounts — has, rather aptly, remained sequestered in the Hermit Kingdom, doggedly advancing his weapons program. That he has achieved with some distinction: Today, the impoverished nation of 25 million has the ability to strike anywhere on the continent U.S. with a nuclear-armed ballistic missile. Trump should expect no less steel at the negotiating table. (The location for the talks is still under discussion.) “President Trump made his reputation on making deals,” a senior administration official told a press call to justify the unprecedented summit. “Kim Jong Un is the one person who is able to make decisions under their authoritarian — uniquely authoritarian — or totalitarian system, and so it made sense to accept the invitation with the one person who can make decisions instead of repeating the long slog of the past.” **Read More:** [_Why Trump’s Predecessors Did Not Meet With North Korea_](http://time.com/5192579/trump-meets-kim-jong-un-north-korea/) Still, the stakes are unbelievably high for two geopolitical neophytes. Trump may point to a lifetime as a savvy businessman, though he has won few friends in international diplomacy, reportedly [describing](http://time.com/5100328/shithole-countries-trump-reactions/) African nations as “shitholes,” [pulling out](http://time.com/4800747/china-climate-change-paris-agreement-trump/) of the Paris Climate Accords and preaching “America First” to bewildered international institutions that Washington founded and largely controls. He also has a threadbare State Department to handle preparations, especially after Joseph Yun, the top U.S. diplomat dedicated to North Korea policy, [retired](https://edition.cnn.com/2018/02/28/politics/trump-north-korea-diplomacy-joseph-yun/index.html) last month. South Korea still does not have a U.S. ambassador. “The risk right now is as much on the U.S. side,” says Professor Stephan Haggard, a Korea expert at the UC San Diego School of Global Policy. “Is the administration in a position and does it have the staff and bandwidth to exploit this opportunity?” Kim Jong Un, by contrast, cannot call on decades of wrangling over Manhattan real estate, but he was groomed for his unparalleled leadership role for several years before assuming power in late 2011, following the sudden death of his father, Kim Jong Il. Trump must be wary; canny brinkmanship defines the Kim clan. North Korean founder, Kim Sung Il, father to Kim Jong Il and grandfather to the current Kim, expertly played his estranged Chinese and Soviet benefactors off each other for decades to eke concessions. Following the fall of the Soviet Union, Kim Jong Il used the same tactic between China and South Korea, switching between antagonism and reconciliation. Noncompliance was rife. The younger Kim has learned these lessons well, threatening “seas of fire” one minute and then dangling denuclearization the next. Even so, the scale of Kim’s current volte-face is flabbergasting. From [vowing](http://time.com/4952863/north-korea-kim-jong-un-hydrogen-bomb-pacific-donald-trump-insults-un/) in September to “surely and definitely tame the mentally deranged U.S. dotard \[frail elderly man\] with fire,” referring to Trump, Kim has now flipped to pledging “he is committed to denuclearization,” according to South Korean National Security Advisor Chung Eui-yong, who addressed assembled media outside the White House Thursday evening. Kim has also promised a moratorium on weapons tests and that the talks would occur regardless of the looming U.S.-South Korea joint military drills, which Pyongyang abhors.  South Korean National Security Advisor Chung Eui-yong flanked by South Korea National Intelligence Service chief Suh Hoon (L) and South Korea's ambassador to the United States Cho Yoon-je (R), outside the West Wing of the White House on March 8, 2018 in Washington, DC. Mandel Ngan—AFP/Getty Images “I think it’s a genuine sentiment that if North Korea, the regime and the nation can see a way to feel secure without nuclear weapons they will do without them,” says Professor John Delury, an East Asia expert at Yonsei University in Seoul. “Then the question is: how do you make North Korea feel \[secure\]?” That hurdle is monstrously high considering America’s recent record. Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein and Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi were both toppled with American backing despite acquiescing to Washington’s request to abandon their atomic ambitions. Obama’s hard-won denuclearization deal with Iran is today being [undermined](http://time.com/5088724/iran-deal-trump/) by Trump, who has also [taken aim](http://time.com/4822005/donald-trump-cuba-policy-2/) at his predecessor’s rapprochement with Cuba. Kim knows that promises from a democracy only last as long as the administration that uttered them — if that. China could play a role here, guaranteeing the security of the regime in the similar fashion as Japan and South Korea fall under the American “nuclear umbrella.” But Beijing already has a mutual defense treaty with North Korea, so its doubtful that alone would be sufficient. Kim may ask for the 30,000-odd American troops in South Korea to be removed, which would be a clear nonstarter for the allies. A sobering though very real possibility is that Kim is desperate for breathing space as unprecedented new U.N. sanctions bite, owing to [stringent adherence ](http://time.com/5189072/north-korea-donald-trump-credit/)by Beijing. Although Trump [tweeted](https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/971915531346436096) after Thursday’s announcement that “sanctions will remain until an agreement is reached,” the rub lies in Chinese enforcement across the two nations’ 880-mile shared frontier, enforcement that can be tinkered with in a matter of hours. Kim might be trying to demonstrate to his Chinese benefactors — unsettled by Trump’s [threats](http://time.com/5186254/donald-trump-trade-wars-good/) of a trade war — that he’s willing to cooperate so they take the foot off the gas. To achieve the maximum possible outcome from the summit, Russia, China, South Korea, Japan and the U.S. must remain united and steadfast in their goals. 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