What the commentators said

“Brinkmanship is back.” The world is on the brink of a devastating war. So runs the message from world capitals, said Niall Ferguson in The Sunday Times. I beg to differ. Pyongyang may have made advances since it began nuclear tests in 2006; but all that means is that it now has a device roughly as potent as the “Fat Man” bomb dropped by the US on Nagasaki, in 1945. It’s not close to getting an intercontinental ballistic missile capable of hitting the US mainland. And with the smallest arsenal and most accident-prone ballistic missiles of any nuclear power, it’s in no position to launch a strike, agreed Richard Lloyd Parry in The Times. For Kim, with “20 wobbly nukes” against Trump’s 6,900, it would be suicidal. Tell that to the residents of South Korea’s capital, Seoul, said Ian Birrell in The Mail on Sunday. A “megacity” of 25 million, it lies in range of North Korea’s artillery, not to mention its nerve agents and nukes. In 1994, Clinton dropped a tentative plan to conduct air strikes against Pyongyang after advisers warned that if it retaliated, casualties could top a million. With two “maverick” leaders now at the helm in both countries, “only a fool” would rule out the possibility of “Apocalypse Now”.

The good news is, Beijing may at last be leaning on Pyongyang to rein in its nuclear ambitions, said John Pomfret in The Washington Post. Last week the Global Times, a paper Beijing often uses as a mouthpiece, warned that Chinese oil shipments to Pyongyang could now be “severely limited”. That new toughness may reflect pressure from Washington, but it’s also a response to public concerns. Ordinary Chinese are “fed up” with Kim: on the web he’s referred to as “Kim Fatman the Third”. But even Chinese sanctions are unlikely to deter him, said John Hemmings in The Daily Telegraph. He knows what happened to Colonel Gaddafi in Libya after he gave up his nukes. And the military, on whose support his dynasty depends for survival, will never countenance disarmament. Basically, Kim Jong Un needs his nukes in order to stay in power.