Only hours after announcing last week that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo would head to Pyongyang to restart stalled nuclear talks, U.S. President Donald Trump canceled the visit. The trip was only postponed, however; Pompeo could yet go to the North if progress toward denuclearization resumes. Trump appears to think that keeping adversaries off-balance is key to negotiating success. However, it is a dangerous strategy, and one with little likelihood of success.

Talks to eliminate North Korea's nuclear weapons have been fitful. Pompeo became the lead U.S. negotiator after Trump met North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Singapore in June and declared that he had secured Kim's commitment to give up his nuclear arsenal. A close reading of the brief statement released after their meeting shows that he did no such thing.

Those who seek the dismantling of North Korea's nuclear weapons worry that Trump is committed to the "success" of his summit regardless of what the North actually does. They fear that Pyongyang will appeal to the president's vanity and use that as a shield against demands by U.S. negotiators for genuine steps toward denuclearization. North Korea will stall, refuse to make concessions and then blame the resulting breakdown in talks on Pompeo — and Trump would believe them.