Trump is right

North Korea’s offer to cease ballistic missile tests and shut down a nuclear test site is encouraging, but should be taken with a pinch of salt. The country is not to be trusted; the devil lies in both the detail of its pledges and their implementation. Nevertheless, the sudden warming of relations between the two Koreas is to be welcomed, and the United States deserves some credit for this. Donald Trump’s approach to diplomacy has plenty of critics, but it contains at least one sound principle: never assume that a bad situation cannot be changed.

The instinct of establishment diplomats in the Foreign Office or US State Department is to regard foreign dictatorships as permanent things, to be managed cautiously. Applied to North Korea, this has meant tolerating evil all the while that it has been amassing weapons. As a result, Kim Jong-un negotiates from a stronger position than he otherwise would because both China and the West have failed to prevent him gaining nuclear technology. Containing North Korea much earlier in this century would have meant we did not have to reach this point.

That said, Mr Trump understands what many career diplomats apparently do not: that the regime is desperate to hold on to power and is perhaps one economic crisis or internal revolt away from collapse. In other words, if the world wants to bring North Korea to heel – and if it can persuade China to help – then change is still theoretically possible. A Western foreign policy that detects threats fast and deals with them robustly is a far better option than sweeping trouble under the carpet. The victims of Bashar al-Assad’s dictatorship in Syria will confirm the truth of that.