Two self-boosters-in-chief Trump and Kim get to sheath war of words

It’s the dream summit. The world’s two most click­baitish leaders, ­Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un, meeting in the northern spring.

South Korean national security director Chung Eui-yong emerges from the White House yesterday. Picture: AP

It’s the dream summit. The world’s two most click­baitish leaders, ­Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un, meeting in the northern spring, the post-Winter Olympics thaw well established, to talk about …?

The agenda could include anything from denuclearisation or a nuclear freeze, to a Korean peninsula peace treaty at last, to an economic modernisation plan for the North.

On past form, the default topic favoured by both leaders is essentially: themselves. A huge topic. Their conversations will inevitably exceed the time allotted by their respective protocol advisers.

The weight of expectation from the summit is huge.

That’s natural, since the road to heightened confrontation is so frightening.

Kim has threatened to rain ­nuclear annihilation on large chunks of the world, led by America, while Trump has warned that North Korea could be wiped off the face of the earth.

The encounter will be a massive test for both leaders, who have each so far claimed to their domestic audiences never to have taken a step sideways or backwards.

But there can be no clean win/win outcome in this case. No amount of spin can conceal that any progress towards greater ­stability on the peninsula must come at a price.

The question will also hang heavy over the talks: can both sides be trusted to meet fully the steps they agree?

To date, the core concession has been made by the US and its ally South Korea, which have suspended planned joint military ­exercises that are designed to keep the North’s military constantly on high alert, if not on the verge of exhaustion.

Pyongyang has meanwhile not tested any nuclear device or missile this year — enabling China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi to ­declare on Thursday, with some justification, credit for the restoration of dialogue on the peninsula, since Beijing has strongly urged these mutual suspensions for some time.

In the lead-up to the talks, it’s important that the neighbours — South Korea, the US and Japan particularly, but also more loosely China and Russia — agree a common front. The Kim dynasty has in the past proven highly successful at dividing them by appearing to cut special deals.

It’s also important to stress who’s the real problem here. It is not Donald Trump. It is not the US. It is not the people of North Korea. It is the hereditary communist dynasty that is the world’s ­cruellest ruler.

Commentators will make jokes as the summit approaches, between two such eccentric leaders. But North Korea’s despotism and its nuclear march are at heart no laughing matter.