It really isn't a contest between equals - but Trump has certainly made it a lot easier for North Korea to pretend that it is, with a much-hyped one-on-one meeting, which he even prioritized enough that he was willing to leave early from the G7 meeting for it. Sure, it didn't cost him much to do that - other than providing further evidence to those who argue that Trump is attracted to strongmen and dictators while constantly getting into fights with democratically elected leaders. But it was worth a lot to North Korea, and he could've extracted more in exchange for agreeing to it.

True of course that it's only the beginning and too early to judge the whole endeavour. If somehow he really did solve a problem like North Korea that has stumped world leaders for decades, he'd genuinely deserve that Nobel Peace Prize that has been mentioned. But from someone who so loves to bully and insult his allies, and rants so much about the Iran deal, it's certainly curious to see him taking such a radically different approach with a horrible dictatorship like North Korea.