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The same American president who once said he'd be wasting his time negotiating with "Little Rocket Man" is now expecting fruitful talks. But Australia is cautious in its expectations of the historic US-North Korea leaders' summit. Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has heaped praise on US President Donald Trump for heading to the negotiating table as well as China for cutting off the rogue state's economic lifeline. But Mr Turnbull is keeping expectations in check. "We have had false dawns before on the Korean peninsula," he warned. The world will be eagerly watching the first-ever meeting between a serving US president and a North Korean leader, which is scheduled for Tuesday in Singapore. The ancient Chinese classic The Art of War says if you know thyself and know thy enemy you will win a hundred battles. North Korean leader Kim Jong-un could find some useful bedtime reading in Donald Trump's 1987 book, The Art of the Deal. Trump contends the worst thing you can possibly do in a deal is seem desperate to make it. "That makes the other guy smell blood and then you're dead," he writes. "The best thing you can do is deal from strength, and leverage is the biggest strength you can have. Leverage is having something the other guy wants. Or better yet, needs. Or best of all, simply can't do without." Trump has taken quite a relaxed approach to preparations. "I don't think I have to prepare very much. It's about attitude," he said. "I think it's going to be a very fruitful meeting." It's hard to prepare when so little is known about the third-generation North Korean leader that his father's one-time Japanese sushi chef is considered a specialist authority. Kim has reportedly ordered his senior diplomats to "build trust with our long-time enemy". It's a different tone from the usual fireworks. The Winter Olympics in PyeongChang also helped cool tensions between North and South Korea and laid groundwork for historic talks in April between South Korean President Moon Jae-in and Kim. It was the first time in more than a decade that leaders from the two countries had met, and only the third time since the end of the Korean War. Foreign Minister Julie Bishop hopes the meeting will be a circuit-breaker for North Korea's illegal behaviour but has talked up the need for the region to stay united. "The US, Australia, and the international community, will continue to apply maximum economic and diplomatic pressure on North Korea until it makes concrete commitments to complete, verifiable and irreversible denuclearisation," Ms Bishop said. Pyonyang last year threatened Australia with disaster if it continued "dangerous moves" in supporting the US's tough stance. Defence Minister Marise Payne expects the summit to be part of a longer process and not a one-off. A Royal Australian Air Force surveillance plane was sent to Japan is helping monitor North Korean vessels on the high seas. The United Nations has long suspected that North Korea has used illicit ship-to-ship transfers to avoid strict sanctions. The stakes for the summit are sky-high. North Korea's longest-range intercontinental ballistic missile could, in theory, travel 13,000km. This covers most of the world except South America and Antarctica. Pyongyang also claims it can pop nuclear warheads on its missiles. The US estimates North Korea has up to 60 nuclear weapons and some experts believe it has sufficient uranium stocks to build six a year. The biggest sticking point on the leaders' talks will be defining de-nuclearisation and the time frame. Trump is seeking to persuade North Korea to dismantle all its nuclear weapons quickly and allow international inspectors. In return, North Korea could get relief from economic sanctions. So far Kim has pledged to stop missile testing and has closed down a nuclear test site. Topping North Korea's wish list will be the US removing its so-called nuclear deterrence umbrella over South Korea and Japan. Tokyo is terrified about this prospect and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe raised it with Trump in talks this week. For decades the North has considered the US military presence of 28,000 troops in South Korea as a threat to its existence. One thing Trump flagged could come out of the summit is an agreement to formally end the 1950-53 Korean War, which was concluded only with a truce, not a peace treaty. The Trump and Kim showdown is scheduled for Tuesday on Singapore's Sentosa Island. No matter the outcome, Trump is likely to hail it a diplomatic coup "A little hyperbole never hurts. It's an innocent form of exaggeration," he writes in The Art of the Deal. Australian Associated Press