Donald Trump’s latest eruption – saying that his threat of fire and fury didn’t go far enough – will have delighted Kim Jong-un. His demented regime is based on the idea of being on the brink of war with the United States: this conceit has been used to build a nuclear weapons arsenal that has cost billions of dollars and millions of lives. He ran 24 missile tests and two nuclear tests last year and still didn’t get a rise out of Barack Obama. Then along comes Donald Tump and: bingo. Kim has finally found someone with whom to play nuclear poker. To many in Washington – and the world – this seems insane. Trump’s verbal and emotional incontinence seems to be playing right into Kim’s hands, needlessly and senselessly escalating the situation.
But as I say in my Daily Telegraph column this morning, there is method behind Trump’s madness. It’s ten years since Capitol Steps came out with How Do You Solve A Problem Like Korea, and since then North Korea has managed five nuclear tests – each of them a stepping stone to the goal of being able to threaten to nuke the US mainland.
Last month, Kim successfully tested a missile with enough range to hit Los Angeles (or London).
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