After almost a year of conflict and tension between the United States and North Korea, President Trump and North Korean dictator, Kim Jong-un met at the summit in Sentosa Island, Singapore. The two shook hands and had a presumably civil conversation and by the end of it, Trump came to Twitter to say that he predicts the two will have “a terrific relationship.”

This shocked a lot of people as less than a year before, the two were making threats and insulting each other over social media. A tweet from Trump dated back to November 11th, 2017 states, “Why would Kim Jong-un insult me by calling me ‘old’ when I would NEVER call him ‘short and fat’? Oh well- I try so hard to be his friend- and maybe someday that will happen!” referring to Kim Jong-un allegedly calling him an “old lunatic, mean trickster and human reject.” This escalated rather quickly as President Trump went on to threaten to wipe out North Korea if they attacked America or any of its allies.

A tweet from Trump dated back to January 7th, 2018 says, “North Korean Leader Kim Jong-un just stated that the “Nuclear Button is on his desk at all times.” Will someone from his depleted and food starved regime please inform him that I too have a Nuclear Button, but it is a much bigger and more powerful one than his, and my Button works!” Trump tweeted this after Kim Jong-un delivered an address where he bragged about North Korea’s nuclear program and stated that their missiles are able to reach the United States, and that the button to set them off is always on his office desk. Kim responded to this by calling Trump a “mentally deranged dotard (old/senile)” and threatened to wipe out America if they tried to attack first.

Several months later, the North Korean delegates reached out to the U.S president and proposed a meeting between the two leaders. Trump accepted and the two were scheduled to meet in June of 2018 in Singapore. Kim also agreed to free 3 American captives that were detained in North Korea. While asked by reporters about his hopes for the outcome of the summit, Trump stated, “There’s a very substantial chance it won’t work out… that doesn’t mean that it won’t work out over a period of time, but it may not work out for June 12th.” The day finally came and the two met at the Capella Hotel in Sentosa, Singapore. It resulted in a declaration that the two Koreas were going to sign a peace treaty along with Trump signing a document agreeing to denuclearize the Korean peninsula. He also agreed to provide security guarantees to North Korea and stated that he’d developed a “special bond” with Kim and would “absolutely” invite him to the White House.

Months later during Trump’s State of the Union address, he used the opportunity to announce that him and Kim Jong-un would be meeting up for a second time to further discuss North Korea’s compliance with the United States’ request for them to dismantle their atomic arms program, stating, “Chairman Kim and I will meet again on February 27 and 28 in Vietnam.” The day came and the two met up in Vietnam’s capital, Hanoi to close the deal once and for all.

As it turns out, the two had more trouble coming to an agreement this time than the first. Kim Jong-un claimed he was willing to shut down a small fraction of his nuclear program, but not all of it, and only if Trump were to lift the sanctions put on North Korea. These sanctions include banning the trade of arms and military equipment, dual-use technologies, vehicles, industrial machinery, and metals, freezing of the asset of individuals involved in the country’s nuclear program, banning of the import of certain luxury goods, banning the export of electrical equipment, coal, minerals, seafood and other food and agricultural products, wood, textiles, and stonesban natural gas import and restricting fishing rights. Trump didn’t think this was a fair compromise and declined. The two went their separate ways without coming to an agreement and there has yet to be talk of a third summit.