“No question this is speed dating,” said Christopher R. Hill, a former State Department diplomat who led the U.S. delegation in the Six-Party Talks with North Korea during the George W. Bush administration. He recalled being rebuffed in his bid to personally deliver a letter from Bush to Kim Jong Il — in a standard business-size envelope.

By contrast, Hill said, the North Koreans already “have gotten the whole enchilada” from Trump…

“Photo ops of the two together, smiling, those are disseminated in North Korea to show the two leaders are equal,” said Bill Richardson, the former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations who met with several dictators, including Iraq’s Saddam Hussein, and made several trips to Pyongyang. “Trump should avoid the propaganda, the one-on-one smiling and hugging.”

Yet Trump views the photos as a victory, too — a symbol that he is willing to discard the diplomatic conventions that have limited his predecessors and stymied their attempts to curb North Korea’s nuclear program.