Though hardly what the president had hoped for, the agreement on offer would have been a step away from the taunts and threats of 2017 and should have been taken, writes nuclear expert Jeffrey Lewis.
And so, why would the United States expect North Korea to willingly trade away that advantage in its entirety? Why would North Korea, having completed the development of a nuclear deterrent that puts it in a class with countries like China, India, Pakistan and Israel, simply apologize and turn over these capabilities in exchange for a couple of McDonald's and a Trump Tower Pyongyang?