Pre-summit negotiations

The North Koreans had never before participated in an event of the sort, were unfamiliar with notions of press access and deeply afraid about both espionage and assassination. The North Korean logistics teams struck the Americans as organized, detail-oriented and mission-focused, said one official involved in the planning. There were also a number of women involved in senior roles, surprising to the U.S. side.

  TPM

So, obviously, the American team wasn't a lot less ignorant of North Korea as their boss.

The U.S. team wanted to send in an official photographer to capture the moment for history — a manifestation of the White House’s desire to turn the summit into an international media event — but the North Koreans balked.

“How do we know she’s not a spy?” protested the North Koreans. They eventually agreed the photographer could attend.

[...]

Similar worries had come up earlier in the talks when the Korean delegation voiced concerns that cameras belonging to the press could be concealed weapons.

Does that indicate that North Korean photographers are spies and their cameras are concealed weapons?

At a formal signing ceremony Tuesday afternoon, a gloved North Korean official inspected Kim’s chair and the black felt-tipped pen bearing Trump’s signature in gold that was positioned for Kim’s use.

At the last minute, Kim’s sister, Kim Yo-jong, who was standing to his side, provided a pen of her own for his use.

Pens, too.

In all fairness, the North Koreans know as well as anyone, and better than most, that the Americans are not trustworth, nor are they above attempts to assassinate foreign leaders.

On the final day before the summit, officials at the White House National Security Council back in Washington grew incensed over a New York Times report suggesting that “science is unwelcome” in Trump’s administration and that the U.S. negotiating team was devoid of nuclear physicists. So the White House issued a directive to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo: He would go in front of cameras in Singapore and call out the newspaper by name, an official familiar with the instruction said. Pompeo complied.

“Before discussing the summit, I want to address a report in The New York Times,” Pompeo opened. “Any suggestion that the United States somehow lacks the technical expertise across government or lacks it on the ground here in Singapore is mistaken.”

[...]

Never steeped in details or history, the president feels he has made ground-breaking progress, as evidenced by his grand statements telling the world to “sleep well.” Back in DC, in a terrible mood, he is frustrated by all the questions about the fine print.

Try as he may, he simply cannot get the praise he so richly deserves.

According to a Thursday Washington Post report, Trump started off his trip in Singapore by expressing his boredom to staffers and asking why they couldn’t just move the fully-planned summit up a day. “We’re here now,” he reportedly said. “Why can’t we just do it?”

He was only talked out of this idea when Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders convinced him that he would lose press coverage if the summit were to be changed to what would be Sunday night in America.

  TPM

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.