SEOUL -- U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, a little more than a week away from their high-stakes summit, are worlds away from the mocking jabs and verbal threats they were hurling at each other last year.
Six aides pushed and pulled, talked and stopped talking to bring this change about. In the past week or so, some traveled thousands of miles to meet with one another. Their back and forth encounters swung from threatening to pull out of the meetings to acknowledging how critical the summit is to both countries. Here are brief sketches of who these matchmakers are and what they did to help bring about "the deal of the century."