I believe that Donald Trump has practiced the art of the deal with North Korea expertly. He correctly saw the nefarious influence of China's Xi Jinping behind the spate of DPRK "hostility" a few weeks ago. He recognized Kim Jong-un's predicament and instantly grasped the counter-intuitive: rather than soothe or placate Kim he forced Kim to choose: us or them, baby. That gave Kim a perspective that no North Korean leader has ever been given before. It gave Kim Jong-un a choice. And no North Korean leader had ever been given a choice before.

With the distance that perspective provides Kim could step back and evaluate analytically. With choice Trump gave a North Korean leader some free will, again a first. Giving perspective and choice Trump also gave Kim respect. The Maximum Leader of an Axis of Evil country shown respect?!  The DPRK is the most vilified pariah nation on earth. Kim had been taking notes as servile pupil to teacher in his first meeting with Xi Jinping--in China. Here was Trump offering to fly half way around the world to meet him in Asia. Unprecedented.

Perspective, choice, respect: If Kim had any self-respect, and the evidence is he has plenty, if he had any smarts, if as a young man he truly has dreams for his country's future, then to such a man, the choice was obvious. Trump won North Korea. And as importantly China lost it.

This is Public Occurrences.