Mad Kim and the risks of sabre rattling

FOR the second time this year, the escalating tensions in the Korean peninsula are a cause for deep concern.

Over easter, missile tests by Pyongyang and US sabre rattling alerted the world to how potentially dangerous the situation in this volatile region could be.

When the stand-off ended, there was at least some hope that North Korea – the clear aggressor – would end its provocative weapons tests.

But instead, the country’s unhinged dictator Kim Jong-un has doubled down, pressing ahead with the development of Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles which he now claims can hit the US mainland.

According to reports sourced to US intelligence, Kim’s scientists have overcome a critical technological hurdle in the production of a miniaturised nuclear warhead that can fit inside its missiles.

If true, this rogue state is close to having the power to inflict unimaginable death and destruction, and now presents the gravest of threats to the region and the West.

This paper is no admirer of Donald Trump. But under such circumstances no president of the world’s most powerful democracy could stand by and do nothing – and his stance is in stark contrast to the softly-softly approach of the Obama administration, which arguably allowed the situation to escalate dangerously.

Yes, Trump is guilty of using absurdly inflammatory rhetoric when he says threats against the US will be met with ‘fire and fury like the world has never seen’. But the message is at least unequivocal, and expressed in language the North Korean regime cannot fail to understand as it threatens a missile strike against the US territory of Guam in the South Pacific.

The problem with such rhetoric, however, is that if the President fails to deliver on his threat, he will seem weak.

What is needed now is not more bellicose language but calm thinking by diplomats and Mr Trump’s senior generals, some of whom have impressive pedigrees. What is also vital is that the Chinese, who could have imposed reform on North Korea – effectively their client state – years ago, now behave responsibly and sensibly.

To their credit, they and Russia have supported new UN sanctions against Pyongyang. Those sanctions must now be given the chance to work.