The news that President Trump had accepted an offer to meet Kim Jong Un to talk about North Korean denuclearization took many people by surprise.

Thursday's announcement had come after nearly a year of rapidly increasing tension between the United States and North Korea, as Pyongyang made considerable leaps in its nuclear weapons program despite the Trump administration's “maximum pressure” strategy.

But this scenario may have been foretold. As Jeffrey Lewis, an expert on North Korea's nuclear program at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey has noted, there was a preview of a similar line of events — in a North Korean propaganda film aired years ago.