Huge in hype, the unscheduled meeting between president Donald Trump and North Korean dictator on Sunday at the DMZ (Demilitarized Zone) bisecting North and South Korea on Sunday only produced one concrete result to advance the goal of denuclearization -- a promise that low level delegations from each side might soon meet.
Trump's propaganda machine went into overdrive by overhyping the fact Trump became the first sitting president to step onto North Korean soil. Trump and Kim shook hands at the DMZ with Kim leading Trump a few meters inside his country.
"It's a great honor to be here," said Trump at his meeting with Kim at the DMZ. "I feel great."
"I never expected to meet you at this place," said Kim about his meeting.
Political analysts later said the 50 minute-long Kim-Trump DMZ meeting inside South Korea that followed their encounter at the border only achieved a promise to restart stalled denuclearization talks. Trump said the negotiating teams of both countries' could begin meeting about denuclearization within a matter of weeks.
He said U.S. negotiators will be led by the current U.S. special representative for North Korea, Stephen Biegun. U.S. officials later said only low-level delegations will first meet ahead of any substantive negotiations.
Trump has said before he's in no rush to quickly eliminate North Korea's nuclear arsenal, which was his main demand -- and biggest mistake -- in his failed summits with Kim at Singapore and Hanoi.
The announcement of renewed denuclearization talks followed the 50 minutes, closed-door meeting inside South Korea between Kim and Trump at Panmunjom, the village where the truce ending fighting in the Korean War was signed on July 27, 1953.
Trump described the meeting as "very, very good" after the meeting ended. He also invited Kim to visit the White House in the latest episode of this widely panned bromance between both authoritarian leaders.
Kim said the meeting was "an expression of his willingness" to work toward a new future.
"I'm not sure what it is that President Trump is trying to accomplish, because while all this engagement has gone on, there has been no decline in the stockpile of North Korean nuclear weapons or missiles," said Joseph Yun, former U.S. special representative for North Korea.
Yun described Sunday's DMZ spectacle as "a lot of theater," saying Kim won't give up the nuclear weapons he sees as key to his survival.
But Yun also told CNN the U.S. and North Korea "need to reduce tensions" while taking concrete steps to realize this key aim.
