Hitting reset best option on N Korea

Regardless of the reason, the cancellation of the United States-North Korea summit to address Pyonyang’s nuclear programme is hardly the worst possible outcome of this high-stakes diplomatic gamble. President Donald Trump was unprepared, North Korea’s Kim Jong Un was playing games and both leaders seemed oblivious if not indifferent to the real risk of making things worse.

Now it’s time for both sides to start over and do it right – by building on the dialogue they established to lay a real foundation for talks that could produce substantive results rather than empty boasts and threats from both sides.

North Korea and its main patron, China, can claim some successes in playing off Trump’s vanity and insecurity, and his over-eagerness to make a deal. That enabled Kim to elevate himself on the global stage, which has already crimped America’s leverage, weakened the bargaining position of South Korea, frightened Japan and left the Europeans in the cold. This is a prime example of what occurs when an unprepared president who is gutting the State Department and thinks he knows more than generals and career diplomats forges foreign policy on the fly. North Korea has at least opened a dialogue, and Trump has put himself on the hook for cutting a deal. But it’s best to walk away now from what could have been a freewheeling disaster and hit the restart button.