There are a dozen of stories like this, because I feel like every president has tried to be the one to “fix” the North Korea situation.

Bill Clinton actually negotiated a standown of the DPRK’s nuclear program during his presidency - in return, the US would fund and oversee the construction and operation of two large power plants in the country to make up for the loss of nuclear power.

When he brought the deal back to Congress, they refused to ratify it. You could build two power plants with spare change in Congresses couch cushions, and the US was running a surplus at the time thanks in part to Clinton gutting welfare, but they refused on the grounds that they didn’t want to pay for it and after waiting six months the Kim Jong Il government realized it wasn’t going to happen and started up their nuclear program again.

Imagine what else could have happened over the last thirty years if we had gotten the snowball rolling with this one deal cooperating with the DPRK.