A post-North Korea Asia: what will it look like?

WHO came out on top in Singapore, where the president of the most powerful nation on earth met the North Korean leader, a dirt-poor country that has made significant steps towards becoming a nuclear power? The world's press seems agreed on the answer: neither the United States nor North Korea but China, a country that wasn't present but whose shadow loomed large.

Back in Washington, US President Donald Trump told Americans that they could "sleep well tonight" because the North Korean nuclear issue, which former American president Barack Obama considered "the most dangerous problem" facing the United States, had been solved by him. "I have solved that problem," he told reporters.

So in Mr Trump's mind there was no doubt as to who had gotten the most from that Singapore meeting, halfway around the world. But he was also generous in his praise of the roles played by the other participants, most particularly by North Korea's Kim Jong Un who, at 33, is less than half the age of the septuagenarian.