A possible meeting between North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and U.S. President Donald Trump could be the biggest success of the Winter Olympics in South Korea if it does not turn into the biggest failure.

South Korea has been able to run a successful "Olympics diplomacy" so far. Firstly, Kim accepted to send North Korean athletes and officials to the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympics. Then, a joint Korean team was formed to compete side by side in women's ice hockey. Athletes from the two Koreas marched into the stadium together, some of them carrying flags showing a unified Korea. And South Korean President Moon Jae-in came together with Kim Yo Jong, Kim's sister, who is the first member of the Kim dynasty to visit South Korea since the Korean War.Many believed that the Olympic diplomacy was a good game but it would be over when the games ended and the tension on the Korean peninsula would continue to get worse. We will see. During the games, the entire world heard that Kim told a South Korean delegation that he was ready to have candid talks with the U.S. president and suspend its nuclear programs during the talks. What's more surprising is Trump accepted the North Korean leader's invitation to have a summit sometime this spring.

Don't drink the kimchi soup first, as the Korean proverb goes. Or don't count your chickens before they're hatched, as the English proverb goes. It's a tightrope, which is very difficult to walk on so the world should not get very hopeful about this summit until it actually happens and produces something to be held on.

First of all, when the two meet, Trump will be the first sitting American president to come together with a North Korean leader. Is this a good thing or a bad thing and why did other presidents before Trump not meet North Korean leaders?

Leaders do not negotiate terms; they close deals. That is why did Trump's predecessors did not meet a North Korean leader in person before. Instead, they sent delegations or tried other communication channels but the negotiations never reached the right level of maturity to bring leaders together. Therefore, this summit might cost more than might be gained.

In a normal diplomatic way, talks start between official delegates who negotiate the terms and try to solve conflicts. If they can successfully conclude the terms, leaders come together to seal the deal. If they come to a dead end, they might leave the table without losing face. However, if you are bringing your top guns to the first meeting and if it fails, then what can be your next move? Particularly in the case of a possible Trump-Kim meeting, who called each other "rocket man" and "a mentally deranged U.S. dotard" a few weeks ago, there is a slim chance of a satisfactory result.

The biggest problem that the leaders are going to discuss is North Korea's nuclear program. North Korea believes that it needs nuclear weapons to guarantee its own survival. When George W. Bush took office in January 2001, he gave a speech on the "axis of evil" referring to Iran, Iraq and North Korea. After this speech, the U.S. invaded Iraq with large-scale military equipment, which caused North Korea to think that it would be the U.S.' next target. Since then, North Korea has been building up its military muscle and advancing its nuclear program despite all the sanctions and pressure coming from the international arena.

As the U.S. expects North Korea to stop its nuclear program and get rid of its nuclear weapons, North Korea expects an international acceptance of its nuclear program. Unfortunately, it is hardly possible to convince North Korea to give its nuclear arsenal up since it has been written into the country's constitution and is referred to as a "treasured sword of justice." North Korea can only give up on its nuclear program if the U.S. guarantees that it will not try to invade the country or change the regime. Considering the credibility issues between both, the only way the U.S. can achieve this is to stop its joint military exercises with South Korea and lessen the number of American soldiers in South Korea and Japan. However, any of these moves would be extremely alarming for South Korea and Japan, who are the closest allies of the U.S. in the region. Thus, this is a big dilemma for the U.S. and it will not make a game-changing decision hastily.

One might say there is no win or lose even if it turns out Kim is not looking for a candid talk as claimed and willing to make any compromise regarding its nuclear program. However, it should be remembered that Kim is going to show his people and the entire world that North Korea's military capabilities have forced Trump to meet him and recognize him as a legitimate head of state, which might encourage him to follow his nuclear agenda even more fiercely.

So, Kim and Trump should come to the table with realistic goals rather than already-consumed strategies. North Korea is not going to hand over its nuclear arsenal anytime soon and the U.S. is not going to withdraw its troops from the peninsula. Realistic goals would include establishing a healthy channel of communication between the U.S. and North Korea to reduce the risk of a crisis, convincing North Korea not to continue its nuclear tests and development and deterring it from sharing any nuclear materials and technologies with another country or a terrorist organization. If these terms can be agreed on during that summit, the desired outcomes can be achieved in the long term. Otherwise, this summit could make the situation worse than it already is now.

* Assistant Researcher at TRT World Research Centre