Who knows what happened. Maybe Kim's sick or dead and his sister is using a body double to try and make a deal before the generals figure out what's what.
Maybe Putin gave Kim the pee-pee tape as leverage.
In any case some things just don't make sense if this wasn't a genuine effort on the part of North Korea.
Including meeting the head of the CIA.
If we are being cold and cynical and looking at this through the prism of recent history and North Korea strategy, this all fits fairly comfortably within the pattern North Korea has engaged in for the last several decades.
After pressure mounts, they stand down for a while, make a whole bunch of promises and photo-op style moments like sending diplomats to Washington to negotiate de-nuclearization and bringing media crews in to watch inspectors shut down weapons sites in the midst of promising a denuclearized peninsula and better relations with the South and the West... Only to see things break down over and over again. Though perhaps, and hopefully, things can end up being different.
But to look at this responsibly, it will likely be years before we know if that is the case. Very hard to see this fitting into the Trump season 2 arc.
Because there is a very real world where Kim agrees once again to inspections, diplomatic agreements are signed for both sides to draw down and de-nuclearize, aid channels opened up, China normalizes relations like they prefer anyways, and Kim, like they have done every time in the past, slowly starts skirting those obligations, diplomacy hits some rough patches and breaks down, things get frosty, China waffles on re-instituting the totality of prior sanctions, and we are back to Kim throwing random mahogany desks out on air strips and more photoshopped missile tests.
