How to deal with North Korea

North Korea presents what is perhaps America’s most dangerous and urgent dilemma at the moment. So what should the Trump administration do?

Here is the problem. The regime of Leader Kim Jong Un, pretty much a one-trick pony with that steed being its nuclear weapon-missile program, has proved itself to be hard to deal with. Six-party talks, including South Korea, North Korea, China, Japan, Russia and the United States, haven’t worked. Various palliative, conciliatory approaches to North Korea by various South Korean regimes haven’t worked either.

The overall picture is one of North Korea representing a realistic, lethal threat to South Korea. The southern capital is 55 kilometres from the North Korean border. North Korea’s army numbers an estimated 1.4 million. Whether North Korea can or will present a credible intercontinental threat to the United States is in doubt, but at this point unlikely.

The field is open to diplomacy, giving Kim, Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping the opportunity to put lots of points on the board for leadership, at home as well as abroad.

So here’s what could happen: Trump asks Xi to set up a meeting in Beijing at which Kim and he meet as guests of Xi to establish peace and avoid war in the Korean Peninsula.

Kim gets the recognition he clearly wants. Xi looks like the peace-seeking big dog of the neighbourhood. Trump looks like the wise leader who used his new prestige to bring peace and avoid war, even while America’s muscle remains visible.