After U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un's "historic" summit last week, it is tempting to heap praise on the meeting as a starting point for defusing tensions between Washington and Pyongyang, which some claim was dangerously close to all-out nuclear war last year.

Or so the small, but vociferous, chorus of defenders of the summit might argue.

For sure, the Trump-Kim summit did have its merits. It dialed back tensions that were escalating quickly over the past year, as highlighted by Trump's threats to "totally destroy" North Korea with "fire and fury" in order to curtail Pyongyang's nuclear ambitions.