For Kim, it is about cementing power at home

Kim Jong Un has chalked up a lot of firsts since taking power at the end of 2011: His country’s first hydrogen bomb test. Its first launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile. And the first crossing of the demilitarised zone by a North Korean leader since the Korean War.

Tomorrow, he becomes the first North Korean leader to meet a sitting US President.

“This is an epoch-making moment,” said Ken Gause, an expert on North Korea’s leadership at CNA. “Even if this is just a meet-and-greet, it’s going to be a huge event simply because the President of the United States and the head of North Korea sat at the same table.”

For Donald Trump, the summit offers an opportunity to prove his selfdescribed masterful negotiating skills and score a diplomatic victory after “maximum pressure” on North Korea.

“Kim Jong Un wants to make North Korea great again,” said Kim Il Guk, who raised money for the regime before escaping in 2014. “He wants to get rid of the international sanctions so North Korea can make more money and become a great country.”

Although “maximum pressure” may have helped bring Kim to the table, the other reality is that he is coming to the summit from a position of relative strength, said Kenneth Dekleva, a former State Department diplomat and psychiatrist who has profiled leaders. “Kim is strong, confident and very wellprepared. He has staked his reputation on having a successful summit.”

The North Korean leader is follow- ing a plan he laid out early in his tenure. In 2013, he announced a “dual-track” policy to advance both the nuclear programme and the economy. He first focused on the nuclear programme. Kim announced in November that his weapons programme was complete. That was the signal he was ready to turn to the economy. And so he did.

“If he can tell North Koreans that he brought the American President to the negotiating table,” Gause said, “his legitimacy is going to go off the charts.”