In all this, it’s hard not to miss the central role being played by the new and very active secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, who, even before being sworn in, had met Kim Jong-un as head of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).

I spoke to Anne Gearan, the White House reporter for the Washington Post, about Pompeo’s ascendance and his role in the talks.

“I think Trump really likes him, and he’s delighted to have somebody he has a personal rapport with out there doing his diplomatic business,” she said. “When Trump is looking around the world, he now has Pompeo, someone who shares his worldview and with whom he feels he can really talk to and do business.”

Gearan believes there’s a real “opportunity” in the talks, which Trump is starting with a big, showy summit rather than building up to that with smaller talks. “Trump sees himself as an iconoclast, he sees himself as a deal maker, and he sees an opportunity here to show his approach, where you try to have a personal relationship with the other person and then use that,” she says. “It’s obviously not a conventional approach, but there’s nothing to say that it won’t work.”

(Originally featured in Mishpacha, Issue 710)