Trump's adventurous diplomacy

US President Donald Trump’s sensational entry into North Korea on Sunday, albeit for few minutes, will go down in history as a fine example of bold diplomacy that may open the locked door with Pyongyang after all.

It must be recalled that President Trump is the first sitting US president to set foot in North Korea.

By all accounts, Trump's talks with the
 North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in the Demilitarised Zone after a brief entry into North Korea broke all diplomatic traditions.

President Trump called his encounter with Kim a “great honour”. Kim could not believe his eyes when he saw Trump on North Korean soil.

Trump's style of unorthodox diplomacy broke
 ranks with traditional norms by dramatically tearing down barriers with North Korea rather abruptly, albeit prematurely.

This dramatic move by Trump is one that echoes the late president of Egypt Anwar Sadat's trip to Israel on November 20, 1977, for talks with the late Israeli prime minister Menachem Begin that set in motion the dynamics for the signing of the Camp David peace accord.

The jury is still out on whether the peace deal with Egypt delivered a genuinely peaceful environment in the Middle East, but the fact remains that bold diplomatic initiatives may, indeed, unlock closed doors between nations.

President Trump has won some international acclaim for his unrehearsed voyage of peace for talks with Kim, including from His Holiness Pope Francis, who praised Trump's style of diplomacy with North Korea as a good example of much-needed "culture of dialogue”.

That said, it is still within the realm of the possible that Trump has taken such a dramatic step with his eyes focused on the US 2020 presidential election. By and large, most of Trump’s recent moves have, indeed, had the next election in focus. This should not take anybody by surprise.

The last word on Trump's adventurous diplomacy will come when a deal of sorts emerges between the US and North Korea on its nuclear programme that ends the isolation of Pyongyang from the world.