In less than two weeks, U.S.-DPRK talks have swerved suddenly from chronic stasis to the brink of an unexpected Donald Trump-Kim Jong Un meeting.

From Kim Jong Un’s birthday wishes to Donald Trump on June 11 to the unprecedented way North Korean state media presented Kim reading Trump’s response on June 23, events have been building to a crescendo.

Facilitated by the fact that Trump will be visiting South Korea following G20 meetings in Osaka – and likely also because of Xi Jinping’s recent visit to Pyongyang – it now appears the U.S