KT edit: Trump and Kim will need to build strategic trust

No one imagined this moment. History has been made again. In 2017, when the US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un were trading barbs on Twitter, a first meeting in Singapore last year was unthinkable. They made it again this year, to Hanoi, Vietnam, for another historic meeting, their second in a span of just eight months - an achievement of sorts. No sitting US president before Trump had met directly with the North Korean leadership, let alone work on the stated goal of denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula.
Trump certainly deserves credit on this front. He has not only brought Kim to the table but also appears to have built a rapport with him. Trump's unscripted approach has helped, the optics have been good, but now for concrete results. So far, US-North Korea meetings have been more about symbolism than substance. North Korea has not committed to denuclearisation, but only stopped testing its weapons. The regime is now looking for some relief in sanctions in exchange for dismantling its nuclear facilities and allowing for limited international inspections. Trump, on the other hand, has not been clear about what he wants to achieve from the summit, and he is in no 'rush' as well.
Such an approach would mean the US is going in with an open mind. Some concessions would suffice for now. The North Korean regime believes it needs weapons of mass destruction to keep its interests and, more importantly, the Kim dynasty alive. Far from denuclearisation, Trump will have to convince Kim that the North can live without nukes while gradually building trust with the dictator at the strategic level. This in itself will be seen as a win if Trump can pull it off. Tensions are down on the Peninsula for a year and we have Trump and South Korean President Moon Jae-in to thank for this. The next step would be to engage Pyongyang with China, Japan and South Korea, the other stakeholders to make 'North Korea an Economic Powerhouse' as Trump tweeted before his meeting with Kim. It's a team game after all.