Summit made for Trump TV

THIS was a summit like no other. At times it seemed like a production by Trump TV, a brilliantly mediated event with the prime focus on the surface rather than the substance.

As Chairman Kim observed: “Many people will think of this as a fantasy from a science fiction film.”

The luxurious setting was an island off Singapore, with the leaders making brief guest appearances.

With few words actually uttered, “body language” was subjected to ponderously intense “analysis”, as if the two leaders were alpha male gorillas, yielding pitifully obvious conclusions. After the signing came the handwriting experts.

But it was hard not to see Trump as a Mephistopheles tempting Kim to transform his totalitarian hell into a capitalist paradise. This was backed up by the toys for rich boys, the bulletproof, bombproof limousine.

An analyst of the document Trump and Kim had signed concluded that “Kim seems to have completely out-negotiated Trump”, who made more concessions than he seemed to realise, but talked about “denuking the whole place”. By that time Kim had left.

It was an excellent start to a brave process which confounded the sceptics. Nobody was fired. The inscrutable North Koreans were taught to smile.

Geoff Hughes is an emeritus professor formerly with Wits University.