There are many things you can call North Korea: a rogue regime. A hermit kingdom. Odious, untrustworthy, brutal, secretive, sinister, oppressive and dangerous. But don't call it unpredictable.

Yet, here we are at another nuclear summit with no shortage of pundits and reporters constantly referring to "the unpredictable North Korea".

It is as though they are locked in an endless loop of some Hollywood spoof: the zany haircuts, the wacky clothes.

The joke is on us

Yes North Korean leaders are easy to lampoon. Team America was a funny film, but it is a joke that has worn thin. It has become lazy shorthand for an inability to truly understand what North Korea is really about.

A regime does not survive for more than half a century in a still-declared state of war with the most powerful nation on the planet — the US — if it is loony.

A country does not endure some of the toughest economic sanctions imposed anywhere on earth if it is wacko.

A nation ringed by American firepower does not manage to successfully develop a nuclear weapons arsenal if it is run by crackpots. Building nukes is hard. Just ask Iran, Iraq or Libya.

One family does not maintain a rigid hold on power passed down through three generations like the Kim family, if they are nothing more than idiotic Hollywood characters with bad hair.

The Kim regime has been calculating, shrewd, ruthless, cruel — and entirely predictable.

Sorry, this video has expired Donald Trump says he's in no rush to strike a deal with North Korea

Keeping up with the Kims

In the west, the Kim family has been a source of mockery, but this family is too easily underestimated. Writer and Korea watcher Gavin Jacobson says, "No regime survives for 70 years — isolated and in dire financial straits — without a hardened backbone of logic supporting it".

North Korea has negotiated many times before; it has mastered the art of "bait and switch", offering concessions, doing a deal then walking away. Each twist and turn buying more time to build its nuclear arsenal. It has signposted every move it has made and fulfilled every one of its stated ambitions.

By 2005 it announced it had "produced nuclear weapons". The bomb has given North Korea a seat at the table; it is what separates North Korea from other rogue states. Kim has always known this, it is a lesson he learned from his father Kim Jong-il who learned it from his father before him, the eternal President, Kim Il-sung.

Kim Jong-un (right) set his sights on finishing the work of his father, Kim Jong-il.

American Korea watcher Victor Cha has recounted a conversation with a North Korean envoy during nuclear negotiations a decade ago. The envoy reportedly said:

"The reason you attacked Afghanistan is because they didn't have nukes. And look what happened to Libya. That is why we will never give up ours."

When Kim Jong-un took power he set his sights on finishing his father's work. First would come the muscle then the money. It was a two-pronged strategy to win respect, recognition and survival.

There is nothing new or unpredictable here, Kim has told the world exactly what he wants. Presidents have come and gone: Clinton, Bush, Obama and now Trump. Despite warnings of collapse, enduring famine, economic sanctions, the Kim regime is still standing.

The endgame is survival

It has a million-man army and more firepower than at any time in its history. To Mr Kim, the endgame is survival, and thus far he has played his hand very well.

At the first summit in Singapore, Kim Jong-un achieved what he wanted, he stood shoulder-to-shoulder with an American president; the North Korean and US flags flew side-by-side.

For that legitimacy he gave up very little. North Korea is no closer to denuclearisation and in fact it is unclear exactly what denuclearisation even means. Entering the Hanoi summit, Donald Trump has said he is content if North Korea continues its halt on nuclear testing. That doesn't set the bar very high, why would Mr Kim need more tests, he already has the bomb?

North Korea is no closer to denuclearisation. ( Reuters: KCNA )

Mr Kim wants what he has always wanted: a peace treaty to end the war, a non-aggression pact, sanctions lifted and survival.

No one suggests he will give up his weapons, how many he has and exactly where they are stored is a mystery likely beyond any inspections program.

What's in this for President Trump?

He already boasts that by meeting Kim he has averted war. He has rolled the dice on developing a close relationship with Kim, that he believes will yield results where other presidents have failed.

Donald Trump who hates the Obama negotiated Iran nuclear deal — relaxing sanctions in return for ceasing and opening up for inspections its weapons program — now wants to cut his own deal with North Korea.

The unpredictable one here is Donald Trump, not Kim Jong-un.

Stan Grant is the ABC's global affairs analyst.