It’s hard to find issues of bipartisan agreement these days, but both parties would agree that Kim, like his predecessors, is a brutal dictator with no respect for human rights who should not be trusted with nuclear weapons. As a result, every effort short of war should be made to force him to give up those weapons. To the extent that there is a dispute, it is only about whether war is necessary if all else fails.
Donald Trump operates outside of this consensus. It appears that he kind of likes Kim, who is, of course, a fellow strong man and thus a kindred spirit. He clearly has no interest or concern about Kim’s treatment of the North Korean people. Finally, North Korea doesn’t run a trade surplus with the US. To Trump, China, Japan, and South Korea, which do run large surpluses, are the real enemies in Asia.
Kim undoubtedly sees the negotiations as an opportunity to play the US card against China. You can imagine Trump dreaming of a deal which: (a) confounds his political foes; (b) makes him look strong and unpredictable; (c) reduces American defense costs; and (d) frees him to start taking firm action against America’s trade adversaries.
If it were someone else, the Reactionaries would scream about a deal of this nature. If Trump makes the deal, they will just accept it. After all, if Trump can normalize Putin, why not Kim?