The cast is assembling in Hanoi for a performance probably worthy of a Nobel Peace Prize. Trump-Kim Summit II isn't likely to produce anything resembling nuclear disarmament. But the personal diplomacy of the US president and North Korea's leader has indisputably removed the threat of the most terrible kind of warfare from Northeast Asia and the entire region.
It is ironic that undemocratic but fast-developing Vietnam is the site of the summit. Bangkok was on the organisers' shortlist but was dropped because of the long-shot possibility of uproar over the looming elections. That's something Hanoi never worries about.
Whether US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un sign another agreement is for now beside the point. One year ago, Mr Kim was keeping an extremely tenuous promise to refrain from testing nuclear weapons. Since then we've had a stand-down on all nuclear testing, all intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) testing and an agreement in principle by North Korea not to increase its nuclear stockpile.
If the US and North Korean leaders make any advance on that agreement tomorrow and Thursday, it will surely result in a joint Nobel Prize. Mr Kim has shown by words and actions his desire to move away from the isolation and bellicose positions of his father and grandfather. Mr Trump, by ignoring several decades of US policy towards Pyongyang, has both encouraged and enabled Mr Kim to simply do the right thing.
Mr Kim is not going to give up his nuclear weapons stockpile tomorrow. That is not even the goal of "denuclearisation" of the Korean Peninsula for now. North Korea's nukes and ICBMs remain the best international bargaining chips. Rather, what Mr Trump has called "the art of the deal" is a series of measured and patient steps to back away from credible threats to using those terrible weapons. Actual nuclear disarmament is a goal, but in the relatively distant future.
If the US and the world aim to reduce the threat of war by North Korea, Pyongyang has an equally pressing problem. Their goal is to ease and then end economic sanctions that make life tough for the regime and tougher for its citizens. Pyongyang's old tactics were to promise to meet UN and Western demands on weapons in order to remove sanctions.
Mr Trump is having none of that, and is correctly keeping up sanctions pressure. That will ease when North Korea is ready to take irreversible action to enter the world of nations in an acceptable manner. This will mean international inspections to ensure it keeps its promises on all nuclear material, including weapons. North Korea has once again enabled limited commerce with South Korea, but that must include all the world.
It must be hoped that the US president and friends will start to raise the issue of human rights with North Korea, as they should.
That country's record, and its current policies, are cruel, and as murderously detached from decency as ever. Peace and civilised behaviour to its citizens must be part of the new order for Mr Kim's nation.
