CHINA/NORTH KOREA/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “President Donald Trump’s rosy outlook at the prospect of meeting with North Korean despot Kim Jong Un is about to hit a wall of hard truths erected by US allies, outside experts and officials within his administration. Trump reacted to Kim’s surprise meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping early on Wednesday [3-28-18] via Twitter, saying chances of denuclearization had risen from ‘not even a small possibility’ to a ‘good chance.’ But the China meeting only solidified the sense of uncertainty pervading US efforts to organize in a matter of months the highest-stakes US-North Korean talks ever, as senior officials in Washington admitted they did not know until Tuesday [3-27-18] afternoon whether Kim was indeed in China. And a key US ally — Japan — is preparing efforts to warn Trump of potential traps in meeting Kim.”
–Kevin Liptak and Jeremy Diamond, Surprise meetings and potential pitfalls. Trump preps for North Korea,” CNN Politics, CNN.com, Mar. 28, 2018, 3:36pm