The Korean cauldron creates dilemmas for the US

Washington

SO here we are, following North Korea's detonation of a sixth nuclear bomb, holding our global breath as the spectre of a nuclear war on the Korean Peninsula hovers over Washington and other world capitals.

US President Donald Trump, as expected, has been playing the role of the Leader of the Free World and the head of the Western alliance, whose administration maintains formal military treaties with North Korea's anxious neighbours South Korea and Japan, where American troops are present, and is committed to asserting its power in East Asia, in particular, vis-à-vis its geo-strategic, geo-economic competitor, China.

It is not surprising, therefore, that President Trump and his top national security aides are sounding tough, holding late-night meetings in the White House's Situation Room, warning that any attempt by Pyongyang to threaten the use of nuclear weapons against American and its allies would be met, as Secretary of Defence James Mattis put it, w…