GIVE President Trump his due, he has achieved more on the Korean peninsula than any other world leader has ever done.
Predictably, the jeering has been deafening from all sides.
Few commentators are willing to concede that this meeting – the first ever between any sitting US President and North Korea’s leader – was as historic as it truly was.
Yes, both men are deeply controversial.
Kim Jong-Un is the totalitarian dictator of an impoverished and brutalised nation, while Trump is considered by many to be unfit for office.
But maybe it’s precisely because they don’t fit established norms that they have so far succeeded where their predecessors failed.
After months of Twitter belligerence, Mr Trump overwhelmed his diminutive adversary with goodwill, while Kim Jong-Un reportedly took a little longer to warm up.
Mr Trump, who is proud of his deal-making abilities, believed it was important to look the North Korean in the eye and gauge his mettle.
It seems he was right to do so.
After signing a joint agreement, Kim Jong-Un promised the world a “major change” with “complete denuclearisation” of the Korean peninsula.
In exchange, Mr Trump ended joint US/South Korean war games, to the consternation of the Pentagon and South Korea.
Only China, which was clearly in the loop long before these declarations, was unsurprised.
That alone points to some subtle advance diplomacy on the part of the US.
Nor is this a walkover for North Korea; economic sanctions remain for now.
Overall, it might be wiser not to underestimate Mr Trump.
I am reminded of President Ronald Reagan, derided for being an actor, and who eventually was credited with precipitating the fall of the Soviet Empire.
The Trump/Jong-Un agreement may yet unravel, but it’s a start, and we should celebrate it.