When Kim meets the Donald: regional peace, not reality TV, at stake

CERTAIN news is sometimes so stunning, running contrary to the conventional wisdom, that we tend to compare it to the landing of the imaginary Man from Mars on Planet Earth who goes: "Take me to your leader!"

From that perspective, we can now add another possible image to our I-Cannot-Believe-This-Is-Happening album that includes the visit of Egyptian President Anwar Sadat to Israel in 1977; the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989; and the election of the first African-American US president in 2008: North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, the "little rocket man", shaking hands with President Donald Trump, that "US dotard".

It would not be an exaggeration to suggest that last Thursday's announcement in Washington that President Trump (who has described the North Korean leader as a "madman") has accepted the invitation of Mr Kim (who called the US president "mentally deranged") to meet as soon as possible for talks over its nuclear programme, has sent shockwaves in Washington and around the world.