The SMH argues that the inevitable destination for any really workable solution to the North Korean problem is China. However, Trump needs to put pressure on China, otherwise it will not take the Pyongyang problem seriously.
Peter Hartcher, the SMHs international editor, says there are only a few ways that a nation can be prevented from going fully nuclear.
One is negotiation. Iran has dismantled part of its nuclear infrastructure under the Iran agreement of 2015.
Would this work with North Korea? Bill Clinton's administration tried it. Pyongyang merely gamed the negotiations.
Another is armed force. The 1981 attack on Iraq's Osirak nuclear reactor by Israel set back the Iraqi nuclear weapons program.
Would this work in North Korea? The consequences of military strikes against North Korea's nuclear facilities would end up with catastrophe in that it would likely provoke the very event that North Korea has spent 60 years preparing for.
A third is cyber war.
Could cyber war work on Pyongyang? There is strong suspicion that it already has. However, the limitation is that it is only a temporary setback to a nuclear program.
Finally, the so-called nuclear umbrella.
Could this work in North Korea's case? Beijing could persuade Pyongyang to abandon its own nuclear plans and take shelter under a Chinese nuclear umbrella.
Peter Hartcher points out that this leads to the inevitable destination for any really workable solution to the North Korean problem - China.
He argues that Trump needs to put pressure on China, otherwise it will not take the Pyongyang problem seriously as David Asher, who led the North Korea Activities Group within the National Security Council in the George W. Bush White House indicated.
And he says the world now depends on Trump as its best chance of solving it.
