US President Donald Trump met his match in North Korea’s Kim Jong-un at the negotiating table in Hanoi, Vietnam . Over the last few weeks, there has been much discussion about the highly anticipated meeting between Trump and Kim, and speculation about what the outcome would be. The show started with Trump taking to Twitter , as usual, to share his hopes for a “very productive summit”, while Kim’s long-haul train ride to Vietnam also picked up steam on social media . Both sides made it seem like they were looking to come to the negotiating table. Trump shared his goals for the meeting on Wednesday , saying, “Kim Jong-un and I will try very hard to work something out on denuclearisation and then making North Korea an economic powerhouse. I believe that China, Russia , Japan and South Korea will be very helpful!” Fast-forward to today, when it looks like both sides took a page out of The Art of the Deal and stood their ground like two stubborn toddlers unwilling to compromise. No agreement in Hanoi for Trump and Kim, but locals are delighted Their confidence – and more candidly their arrogance – led to a breakdown in discussions. Both sides came to the table with what they wanted, but neither wanted to compromise; each side miscalculated the other. The North Koreans went in confident, hoping to play Trump for a sucker, and Trump likely walked away thinking the same. Was the fact that the discussions broke down really that surprising? By the end of the first day , when we would normally be briefed about some progress that had been made, we were still in the dark as to whether there was even an accepted definition of denuclearisation between the two parties. To even begin having a conversation, both Trump and Kim should have had agreed upon an accepted definition to ensure the parties weren’t talking past each other. This was a critical element of this meeting and by the end of the first day, it still wasn’t done. Subsequent to such an agreement on the definition of denuclearisation, a system could be designed to establish a verification regime for North Korean ballistic missiles and nuclear weapons , following which a rollback of sanctions could occur. Early indications from the summit suggested that it wasn’t on track to be a success. It became clear on the first day that both sides, who had been so exuberant going into the summit, were now changing course in an effort to play down high expectations . Trump hails North Korea’s ‘awesome potential’ if Kim denuclearises Another high-level summit between Trump and Kim should not have been planned so hastily. It should have only happened following sufficient groundwork being done at the working group level. Only once the basics had been hammered out should the two leaders have stepped in to finalise the details and seal the deal with a grand summit. Unfortunately, given the large personalities and huge egos involved, this was not going to happen. Trump was highly impatient and thought he could score a quick win, but was sadly defeated by his own naivety. He was eager for a major foreign policy win and appeared willing to do anything to realise this objective. He initiated the second summit without sufficient understanding of what the North Koreans were willing to give up . Kim and the North Koreans, meanwhile, came to the summit believing that they could take advantage of Trump’s desperation and offer relatively minor concessions in exchange for full sanctions relief. Going into the summit, there was concern that Trump would give away the house for a win. There was talk of him signing a statement signifying the end of a state of war between the United States and North Korea that has persisted since 1953. There was also concern that Trump would promise to withdraw US troops stationed in South Korea or that he would be willing to accept a nuclear North Korea in exchange for a freeze of ballistic missile and nuclear weapons testing. Trump himself promoted an image of a prosperous North Korea, following in the footsteps of Vietnam, if only Kim would be willing to meet him at least one-third of the way. But none of these options were tested with the North Koreans and there were no indications that they were potentially amenable to any of these points before the summit. North Korean missile sites undermine Trump’s call for ‘complete denuclearisation’ As the self-proclaimed “great negotiator”, Trump botched this summit by underestimating Kim and thinking he could bamboozle him into making a deal. It seemed like Trump was willing to lower the non-proliferation threshold to secure a win, but in the end it was Kim who showed that he would rather suffer the consequences of punishing sanctions than give up his “ treasured sword ”. But let’s be clear, the summit ultimately failed because sufficient groundwork was not done beforehand to arrive at a mutual understanding on the basic parameters and a framework of understanding as to what both parties were willing to offer or give up. Srini Sitaraman is an associate professor of political science at Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts