This is actually a rather even handed, positive look at the situation by writer Mark Landler
(NY Times) When President Trump declared that he did not really need to prepare for his legacy-defining meeting with North Korea’s leader, he drew sighs or snickers from veterans of past negotiations. But he had a point: In his own unorthodox way, Mr. Trump has been preparing for this encounter his entire adult life.
For an American leader who came of age in the early 1960s, when the United States and the Soviet Union stepped to the brink of nuclear annihilation, the meeting with Kim Jong-un strikes a personal chord, offering Mr. Trump a historic chance to rid the world, and his own presidency, of the greatest threat from atomic weapons.
For a property developer-turned-president, the tête-à -tête, scheduled for Tuesday in Singapore, is a long-anticipated test of Mr. Trump’s conviction that he can slice through decades of diplomatic orthodoxy and strike a grand bargain with North Korea, a feat that eluded his three immediate predecessors.
Mr. Trump, current and former aides said, has been preoccupied with North Korea since his predecessor, Barack Obama, warned him in a closed-door meeting two days after he was elected that the reclusive state would be his No. 1 foreign policy challenge. But he has been tantalized by the idea of solving the North Korea problem since long before that.
Nineteen years ago, when the threat from Pyongyang was a fraction of what it is today, Mr. Trump said he would “negotiate like crazy†with North Korea’s leaders before considering a military strike. In May 2016, while running for president, he said he would sit down with Mr. Kim — an offer he repeated even when threatening to rain “fire and fury†on him if North Korea targeted America.
This continues on for a bit, and it is a good read. Landler hits on one important point
That does not mean that Mr. Trump intends to dive into the details. But in that, he may not be alone: The summit meeting, should Mr. Kim choose to follow in the tradition of his father and grandfather, could turn out to be primarily the get-to-know-you session that many expect.
And that is really the biggest point of this meeting. Not to put together any sort of deal on nuclear disarmament, but to do a meet and greet and see if something can happen, if they can move towards a deal, something that often happens in the business world. Almost a Nixon going to China moment.
And now we wait to see what happens. While so many Democrats hope for failure.
