Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un shared a historic 13-second handshake when they met at the start of their groundbreaking summit in Singapore.
The two leaders greeted each other at the Capella hotel on Sentosa Island on Tuesday morning, before heading inside for discussions about denuclearisation.
Body language experts said the US president projected his usual dominance over the North Korean leader by reaching out first and patting his shoulder.
But Kim responded by firmly gripping Trump’s hand and looking him directly in the eyes for the duration of the handshake.
Donald Trump's shakes - in pictures
“It wasn’t a straight-out handshake,” Allan Pease, an Australian body language expert and author of several books, told Reuters.
“It was up and down, there was an argy-bargy, each one was pulling the other closer. Each guy wasn’t letting the other get a dominant grip.”
Trump is highly experienced in the art of using body language to project authority, having spent his entire career as a business leader and TV personality. He also has a height advantage over Kim, and is almost twice his age.
Following the summit, Trump praised Kim as a "very worthy, very smart negotiator".
They concluded the extraordinary summit with lofty promises by the US president to take care of a "very dangerous problem" and Kim forecasting "major change for the world".
They also signed a document that Trump described as "pretty comprehensive", but he declined to describe it, saying the details would be revealed later.
