Donald Trump said he was ready for a summit with Kim in what would be the first face-to-face encounter between the two countries’ leaders and potentially mark a major breakthrough in the crisis.
But North Korea made several promises to disarm in the past and has backtracked every time, leaving experts doubtful over whether it will also break the new commitments.
The experts argue that, by essentially tricking previous presidents, the issue has just been kicked down the road for future administrations to deal with.
Mr Trump himself has previously hit out at that approach, accusing former presidents of letting the situation spiral out of control.
Jeffery Lewis of Middlesbury Institute of International Studies today wrote on Twitter: “Kim is not inviting Trump so that he can surrender North Korea’s weapons.”Kim is inviting Trump to demonstrate that his investment in nuclear and missile capabilities has forced the United States to treat him as an equal.”
Other analysts are concerned Kim Jong Un is simply using the US for propaganda and has no intention of giving up his missiles.
Political consultants the Eurasia Group told CNBC: “The meeting is a huge political win for Kim.
“It essentially provides him equal status with the US president and strengthens his bid to have North Korea be recognised as a de facto nuclear power.”
And Professor Lee Sung-yoon from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University, warned: “By dangling before the US once again ‘denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula’ and ‘moratorium on nuclear and missile tests’, Kim seeks to weaken sanctions, pre-empt US military pre-emption, and condition the world into accepting North Korea as a legitimate nuclear state.”
The most recent attempt to being Kim to heal, in 2005, saw US as one of five nations holding joint talks with the hermit state.
North Korea agreed to abandon its programmes but quickly reneged on the deal, launching its first nuclear test just one year later.
Prior to that, Bill Clinton’s hopes of negotiating a solution to the crisis also went up in smoke.
The 1994 Agreed Framework, signed up to by the US and North Korea, saw Pyongyang are to freeze its plutonium weapons programme in exchange for assurances and construction projects.
But the regime eventually went back on that deal too, resuming its nuclear facilities in 2002.
Former special assistant to Barack Obama, Jon Wolfsthal, told CNBC: “Agreeing to meet without any concrete steps toward denuclearisation is a major reversal of US policy.
“Trump has previously said no meeting until North Korea takes real steps toward denuclearisation — that is not where we are today.”
And Duyeon Kim, a senior fellow at the Korean Peninsula Forum, warned: “He’s basically following the same playbook as his two liberal predecessors.
“It’s exactly the kind of thing he would want to pick up and continue.”
Today, US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said the talks between Mr Trump and Kim would take “some weeks” to arrange.
He said: “That is a decision the president took himself.
“I spoke to him very early this morning about that decision and we had a very good conversation.
“President Trump has said for some time that he was open to talks and he would willingly meet with Kim when conditions were right.
“And I think in the president’s judgment that time has arrived now.”