China must restrain Kim before it’s too late

It was, presumably, no coincidence that North Korea chose July 4 – US Independence Day – to test launch what is claimed to be the rogue state’s first intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) capable of hitting Alaska. Pyongyang often overstates its capabilities but if this is confirmed as having the required range to reach America then the regime of Kim Jong-un has suddenly gone from being a regional irritant to a real threat to world peace.

It is still unlikely that Pyongyang is able to install a nuclear warhead on its new ICBM system. But the direction of travel is clear; and despite economic sanctions and American attempts to target the system’s guidance software with cyber attacks the North Koreans are relentlessly closing in on their ambition.

The question now is how and when they should be stopped, as stopped they must be. Leaving it until they are capable of mounting an attack on America will be too late since that would force Donald Trump to respond militarily with calamitous results, not least for South Korea.

The best course of action, as it has been all along, is for China to exert pressure on Pyongyang to end its bellicose behaviour and abandon its nuclear programme. Until now, Beijing has been reluctant to do so, preferring to use North Korea as a buffer zone between China and the Us-backed capitalist South Korea. Justifiably or not, the Chinese communist party fears having a united and economically vibrant Korea on its doorstep.

Just to complicate matters further, Vladimir Putin has seized the opportunity to extend Russia’s influence into yet another of the world’s trouble spots by offering to act as an intermediary alongside Xi Jinping of China. If they can make Kim Jong-un back down then they should be encouraged to do so.

However, it is not Russia and China who are being threatened by North Korea, but America, Japan and South Korea. If the countries with influence over Pyongyang fail to get anywhere then the US would be entitled to defend itself and its allies from the unpredictable actions of Kim Jong-un’s junta.

President Trump’s detractors accuse him of belligerence for threatening to settle the problem once and for all. But he has made it clear that Washington prefers a peaceful settlement; and for that to happen China must step up to the task before we reach the point of no return.