The long and short of it is that Kim Jong Un decided a meeting with Donald Trump wasn’t worth the risk.

In the lead-up to his visit to South Korea, the U.S. president made unusually direct overtures to his North Korean counterpart, repeatedly stating that he would “love to meet” Kim and even suggesting that he would be willing to travel to the DPRK to discuss sanctions relief.

For Kim, there were at least theoretical incentives: a chance to reinforce Pyongyang's claim to be a permanent nuclear state, to signal autonomy from Moscow