Amid a dizzying succession of recent DPRK-focused summits, much of the world has been swept up by optimism over a potential thaw on the Korean peninsula and the opportunities they might bring. Publications as diverse as the New York Times, China’s People’s Daily and South Korea’s Choson Ilbo, rarely used to singing from the same hymn sheet, all vaunted the “historic” nature of the inter-Korean summit at Panmunjom on 27 April.

Further talks between North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and Chinese President Xi Jinping in China on 27 March and 8 May, and a meeting in