Can Trump do anything to stop a war with North Korea?

Whatever the US president tells senators at a special meeting, any move to ease the risk of conflict with Pyongyang seems likely to be dangerous, counterproductive or both

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The guided-missile submarine USS Michigan arrives in Busan, South Korea, while conducting routine patrols. Photo: Reuters

Published: 8:00pm, 25 Apr 2017Updated: 11:07pm, 12 Jun 2017

As his administration prepares to brief all 100 US senators on the nuclear and ballistic missile programmes of North Korea, President Donald Trump continues to heighten tensions along the Korean Peninsula in ways he can’t possibly control – as does Kim Jong-un, the crazed leader of North Korea.

But how will the dangerous situation evolve?

First, some US senators are likely to come away from the briefing on Wednesday unconvinced, since the US Senate Select Committee on Intelligence and the Foreign Affairs Committee prefer to act only on “actionable intelligence”. Some are no doubt distrustful of Trump’s presidential temperament, and could remain unconvinced, even with Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Secretary of Defence Jim Mattis expected to be in attendance.

North Koreans on a residential street in Pyongyang. Photo: AP

Pyongyang will take much succour and relief from any divisions among US legislators and national security decisionmakers. But North Korea might also assume that the US is not serious about galvanising its resolve towards North Korea. History shows this could be the wrong conclusion to make.

During the second world war, Nazi Germany kept expanding its military operations across Europe and into Russia, at every stage oblivious to the possibility that the US might enter the fray.