Kim is not a businessman, and wealth--in Trump's sense of the word--is not what he is looking for as he continues his maximum engagement strategy. Trump's mirror-imaging has the potential to lead to policymaking that doesn't really comport with the realities of this thorny national security problem.

Kim is highly unlikely to give up nuclear weapons to get a McDonalds franchise in Pyongyang. And his pivot toward engagement is probably aimed at trying to reduce China's appetite for sanctions implementation.  If we are to believe Kim Jong-un, he has completed the nuclear project that his grandfather started and his father nurtured. North Korea's identity is wrapped up in the idea of being a nuclear state--it's in its constitution, its monuments, its rhetoric, and in its culture. To trade that away for money from Americans would be the ultimate form of dishonor and betrayal to its founding principles.

So when the Trump administration talks about American capitalism helping to develop North Korea, Kim sees as American "imperialists" seeking to exploit the country's people and resources. Kim Kye-kwan, the North Korean first vice foreign minister, said in response to such U.S. declarations: "We have never had any expectation of U.S. support in carrying out our economic construction and will not at all make such a deal in the future, too."