Trump loses his head in a game of chicken

The latest game of chicken was started by the US president, who vowed to “totally destroy” North Korea if the US was forced to defend itself or its allies against the North. He also used a derogatory nickname for the North Korean leader, calling him “a rocket-man on a suicide mission”. 
By now, the world knows what kind of a man Trump is and what language he uses, but few expected him to make such a statement from the podium at the United Nations. 
The leader of the world’s most powerful country used his maiden speech at the world body to threaten to annihilate a country of 25 million people, whose leader he once said he was prepared to meet with over a hamburger. 
There can be no doubt that all efforts must be mustered to end the North’s nuclear and missile menace, but what Trump declared at UN headquarters should have been limited to closed-door discussions with his closest aides. 
That fault, however, does not justify Kim ratcheting up his belligerent rhetoric. Just one day after the US president made the UN address, Kim issued a statement to warn of “exercising of a corresponding, highest level of hardline countermeasure in history”. 
“Whatever Trump might have expected, he will face results beyond his expectation. I will surely and definitely tame the mentally deranged US dotard with fire,” Kim said. 
Kim did not indicate what his next action would be, but his foreign minister, Ri Yong-ho, said in New York that it could be to test the North’s most powerful hydrogen bomb yet in the Pacific Ocean. It is not hard to guess that Ri was following up on Kim’s statement on orders from Pyongyang. 
The use of tough rhetoric and even foul language is traditionally part of the communist regime’s propaganda activity, with the aim of enhancing internal unity against potential outside security threats. Kim may well have wanted to show that he is a man who can stand up to the leader of the world’s most powerful country. 
Whatever the motives behind the tough-worded statement, it won’t be easy to stop North Korea from carrying out its threats. Kim made clear that “the path I chose is correct and that it is the one I have to follow to the last”. 
This means the international community must put up further pressure on the Kim regime. The new US sanctions announced by Trump following his UN speech were timely in that regard. 
The executive order significantly expands US authority to target individuals, companies and financial institutions that fund and facilitate trade with North Korea. 
Most of all, the order enhances the Treasury Department’s authority to target any individual or entity that conducts “significant” trade in goods, services or technology with the North.
The order also targets North Korea’s shipping and trade networks by banning vessels and aircraft that have visited North Korea from visiting the US within 180 days. 
The fresh US sanctions follow UN Security Council resolution 2375, adopted after the North’s sixth nuclear test on September 3, and follow-up actions taken by an increasing number of UN members, including expulsion of North Korean diplomats.
Kim ought to look squarely at the international community’s determination. For his part, Trump should shelve his combative rhetoric – he called Kim a “madman” in his latest tweet – and behave in a way that befits the leader of the world’s most powerful country. The “madman theory” will never work with a man like Kim.