It's in the interests of the US to make diplomatic overtures to North Korea

As former Secretary of State John Kerry has said it is simply not true that diplomacy has ‘failed’ with North Korea

(AP)

Having promised that “fire and fury” would rain down on North Korea if it dared to fire another missile at its neighbours, Donald Trump has instead rained nothing more lethal than a mild tweet on his tormentors in Pyongyang, as well as retweeting some videos from the far-right group Britain First, offensive and bizarre even by the President’s standards.

For his relative restraint on North Korea today – promising only that he would “take care” of the issue, the world should be grateful. It may well be a sign that, at last, Mr Trump is taking some notice of his generals and diplomats, who have long urged him to avoid making a dangerous situation worse by making ill-advised threats and throwing insults at Kim Jong-un, not a man renowned for his easygoing sense of humour. Moreover, those involved know all too well that the first and biggest victims of an American military intervention on the Korean Peninsula would be America’s friends and allies in Japan and South Korea, as well as China, which Mr Trump is at pains to keep on good terms with.

The North Koreans too, have showed some signs of yielding to pressure and good sense. They did not, as they had threatened, launch this missile at the US naval base in Guam, nor did the Hwasong-15 fly low over Japan, and nor was any nuclear device ignited in the atmosphere. It was, as ever, a provocative and frightening act, but it stopped short of war and crossing the red lines that Mr Trump has laid down. Indeed there is some faint hope that, having declared that the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea has achieved its objective of becoming a full nuclear power with the same status as the United States, Pyongyang will declare victory and move on to other, safer, matters, its test programme complete. Pyongyang claims that it now has the capacity to hit Washington DC, and Mr Trump would be wise not to ask them to prove it.

Even if Mr Kim does so, the US still needs to be able to contain, if not disarm, this rogue state. As well as ensuring that South Korea and Japan have the defensive capabilities they need, and the forces they require to deter North Korea, Mr Trump should renew the diplomatic initiatives that his predecessors took in order to ease the tensions with Pyongyang. Perhaps jokingly, Mr Trump has indicated that he wishes to be Mr Kim’s “friend”, and, more important, that America has no wish for regime change. In doing so President Trump has tacitly recognised the fundamental reason for the North Korean nuclear weapons programme – fear that the US will somehow try to replicate what it did in Iraq and Libya, and send the Mr Kim dynasty into exile, or worse.

As former Secretary of State John Kerry has said it is simply not true that diplomacy has “failed” with North Korea, but even if it had in the past – and admittedly it never succeeded in ending the DPRK’s weapons programme – it remains the only method that the West can sensibly deploy to curb Mr Kim’s reckless and belligerent activities. Mr Kerry’s successor, Rex Tillerson has reiterated that diplomatic channels remain open, offering some reassurance. Mr Trump entered office boasting of his abilities as a dealmaker, and has sometimes hinted at a grand bargain with Mr Kim. Now, with North Korea having more or less completed its programme, may be the moment for Mr Trump to deliver his first diplomatic achievement.