Trump's North Korea strategy stems from the belief that tensions can be resolved through the most powerful person in Pyongyang.

But 19 months after his first summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in Singapore, the talks were still stuck at a single knot: how far Washington was willing to ease sanctions and Binh But Pyongyang is willing to give up the nuclear program to some extent.

Now, Trump is at risk of failure in the "North Korean game", when Kim on January 1 warned Pyongyang will soon launch a "new strategic weapon" that experts say could be an intercontinental ballistic missile test (ICBM).

Diplomatic channels between officials of the two countries have been inactive for months. Kim Jong-un, frustrated by the stalemate, publicly rejected the suggestion to hold the next summit from Trump, saying that all conferences would be pointless when the United States did not abandon the old view.

"No matter how wise you think Trump's decision to meet Kim Jong-un is actually the fact that it happened and it didn't work," said Evans Revere, a former Asia policy official. at the State Department, comment. "We have received a reassertion from the top North Korean leader that they are determined to go as fast as possible on the nuclear path. They are reiterating and reinforcing the old threats. It shows that in the end nothing has changed ".

For Trump, the rapidly rising tension on the Korean peninsula is evidence that Kim is in control of the board, which the US president has long described as his diplomatic victory.

With a series of short-range missile launches in the second half of 2019 and a long notice of the new year on policy direction in the near future, the North Korean leader has made it clear that he will continue to prioritize capacity building. National defense though a year earlier, he announced the move to focus on economic development.

In recent weeks, voices opposing Trump, including former national security adviser John Bolton and senators from both parties, have pointed to a mistake in the approach of the White House boss. urging him to take additional actions, from increasing sanctions to pursuing a temporary deal with Kim.

So far, Trump has been determined to follow the chosen path, affirming that his personal relationship with Kim is still positive, and at the same time, calling on the North Korean leadership not to hurt that belief.

"I have a very good relationship with Kim Jong-un," Trump said at the Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida on December 31. "I know he is sending messages about Christmas presents and I hope his Christmas presents will be a beautiful vase, not something else."

But analysts say that with the current chaotic landscape in the US, when Trump is facing the risk of being dismissed and a race to the White House is arduous, the Kim Jong-un administration is probably feeling guilty. so on.

"There are many reasons why they believe that negotiations with Trump are currently in vain," commented Suzanne DiMaggio, foreign policy expert at Carnegie Foundation for International Peace.

Trump was warned by former US President Barack Obama in 2016 that North Korea would be his biggest diplomatic challenge. Seemingly well aware of this, Trump quickly made the strategy of dealing with North Korea a priority in foreign policy.

After intensifying economic sanctions and constantly launching threats to vent North Korea in 2017, Trump unexpectedly proposed to meet Kim in June 2018 in Singapore even at that time. , no detailed agreement was made at the high-level meetings or the working level between the two parties.

After three days of the summit, the two leaders signed a half-page document with four main bullets, including pledges "to work towards the goal of complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula".

Trump called it a major breakthrough, stressing North Korea that "there is no more threat". But according to a Democratic foreign policy adviser in the US Senate, President Trump "completely misunderstood what he gained from Singapore".

Analysts say North Korea has always been asserting that it will only give up its nuclear and missile programs if the United States withdraws its nuclear defense umbrella from South Korea and Japan, and clears sanctions on Pyongyang. The perception gap between the two sides became clear when the two sides' diplomatic missions could not agree on a definition of "denuclearization" after the conference in Singapore.

Despite not making much progress, the two leaders agreed to meet for a second time in Hanoi in February 2018. But pre-meeting working meetings cannot provide a denuclearization roadmap. The talks broke down after Trump asked Pyongyang to abandon the entire nuclear program, in return for eliminating sanctions. Kim, on the other hand, wants Trump to be one step ahead by removing some of the sanctions stifling North Korea's economy.

According to observers, Trump's negotiating team failed to deliver the message to North Korea according to his interpretation. "The North Koreans believe that the only person they can reach is Trump," said Christopher R. Hill, a former official under President Bush who participated in six-party talks with North Korea.

Attempts to resume negotiations since the conference in Hanoi were unsuccessful, despite Trump's June 2018 handshake with Kim in the Inter-Demilitarized Zone (DMZ).

Many lawmakers and foreign policy experts say the United States is in a weaker position than it was two years ago, as North Korea continues to develop its nuclear program, while the Trump administration has canceled some of the wars. important exercise with South Korea to please Pyongyang. In addition, the international sanctions imposed on North Korea have weakened after a period of time when the parties improved relations on the peninsula.

Analyst Jung Pak from the Brookings Institution said the current results led her to believe that the North Korean leadership was never serious about turning policy away from the goal of nuclear development.

"The United States and North Korea have fundamentally disagreed over strategic goals. No letter, phone call or summit could change this," Pak said.