United States President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un are set to meet sometime in June 2018.

Although details on the meeting are not announced yet, many South Korean news reports have claimed that the summit is most likely going to happen in Singapore.

Trump has sought to seek credit for the breakthrough, tweeting on Jan. 4 that the talks would not even be happening if he was not "firm, strong and willing to commit total 'might' against the North".

At the same time, there are many conflicting reports that either gave credit to South Korean President Moon Jae-in, or even suggested that Kim is the one setting the agenda all along.

Well, an expert on North Korea seems to think that Trump is to be credited, but just partly.

Trump the loose cannon that brought the two Koreas closer together?

According to John Delury, a professor at Seoul's Yonsei University, who was cited in a Axios report, it was Trump's unconventional way of doing things that drove the two Koreas to seek a peaceful resolution.

Although Delury did not give full credit to Trump for the ongoing negotiations with North Korea for détente on the Korean Peninsula, he did say that he would give "one-third of the credit" to the Trump administration.

Here are his reasons why:

• The Trump administration increased its economic sanctions towards North Korea and proposed the same to the United Nations Security Council, which adopted the sanctions unanimously.
• Trump also ramped up the military threat towards the rogue state, threatening "fire and fury" against Kim, whom he called "Little Rocket Man" (the favour was returned when Kim called him a "mentally deranged US dotard")

And here is when Moon "freaked out".

According to Axios which cited some anonymous top South Korean government advisers, Moon then went on a diplomatic offensive, making use of the uncertain military crisis to present Kim with his economic development plans.

How Trump's unconventional ways helped kickstart the summit with Kim

Delury also said that Trump was unconventional enough to agree immediately to meeting with Kim, while former president Barack Obama had actually rejected a North Korean offer to restart negotiations in 2016.

Arguably, the Trump administration's North Korea policy sounds very similar to Obama's "Strategic Patience", which includes pushing for more international sanctions and calling on China to do more to pressure Kim.

But only Trump was willing to go to the negotiating table with North Korea without the latter actually agreeing to anything beforehand -- previous American administrations had insisted that North Korea had to agree to denuclearisation first before starting any talks.

Even so, Pyongyang is quick to refute what it called "misleading" claims that it was Trump's political pressure and sanctions which drove them to the negotiating table.

This is probably so that they can strengthen Kim's position going into his meeting with Trump.

[related_story]

Trump asked Moon to credit him for North Korea breakthroughs

Moon has gone out of his way to credit Trump for for each breakthrough with North Korea.

In response to the widow of late South Korean president Kim Dae Jung -- the only Korean Nobel Prize recipient in history known for his Sunshine Policy towards the North -- who wrote that he deserves the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts, Moon reportedly said:

"President Trump should win the Nobel Peace Prize.

The only thing we need is peace."

Apparently, Trump had asked Moon to credit him publicly for pressuring North Korea into talks, according to people familiar with the conversation, who told The Washington Post.

This seems to be a common approach across East Asia to cater to Trump's requests.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe catered to Trump's food preferences by serving him burgers, while Chinese President Xi Jinping gave him a grand welcome during his first trip to Asia in November last year.

However, according to The Washington Post, Moon is likely doing so in order to keep Trump invested in the ongoing efforts to engage Kim.

Moon is scheduled to make a trip to the White House on May 22 before the American and North Korean leaders meet next month.

Top photo via White House YouTube

An exclusive deal for Mothership readers: