DONALD TRUMP

• See UN General Assembly – Trump: I’ll destroy North Korea and its Rocket Man

MANY will sense an unmissable irony in President Trump’s address at the United Nations, set-up after the Second World War to promote global peace and co-operation. Mr Trump issued the bluntest of threats to “totally destroy” North Korea.

The only moot point is whether the leader of the free world intends to achieve that objective with a military invasion and conventional weapons, or by means of a nuclear strike.

These are certainly deeply worrying times. A forum meant for dialogue and cultural understanding, has been used by Mr Trump in the delivery of the most incendiary message a world leader could have mustered.

Mr Trump, of course, is no admirer of the UN, and has been constantly dismissive of the global body since coming to presidential office. Up until now, that criticism has been accepted as the usual bluster we have become accustomed to.

• Related The West’s options in dealing with North Korea

This week, however, his rhetoric moved to a new level. In vowing to obliterate North Korea, the American President is deliberately provoking Kim Jong-un, and by resorting to the playground tactic of name-calling with his reference to “Rocket Man”, many observers will wonder if he is laughing at the North Korean leader.

This sort of approach by Mr Trump has worked well for him in the New York real estate market, where the winner takes all, and risks can be handsomely rewarded. It now looks as if he believes that a similar sort of approach can produce the same sort of results in war games, when the reality is that there would no winners. A strike on North Korea would almost certainly prompt counter-attacks on every territory within range of Kim Jong-un’s armoury – South Korea, China, Japan, Russia – and that is before account is taken of the secondary effects of fall-out from a nuclear explosion.

The danger in all of this is that Trump’s baiting of the North Korean leader could be enough to spark warfare. If we are unsure of what Trump’s actual strategy is, we have no idea what his counterpart is thinking right now, or how close to the edge he might already be. Kim is clearly irrational and unstable.

The other great irony from Mr Trump’s war-mongering address is that he is looking for backers to endorse his positioning. But a glance around the room would have seen only despair from the assembled delegates.

Mr Trump’s only known way of dealing with conflict is to goad, and growl threats which put every one of us at risk. There must be a better way.

UNITED NATIONS

President Donald Trump delivers tough-talking at the UN General Assembly. Mr Trump gave warnings on North Korea, the Iran nuclear deal, Venezuela and on Socialism.

IN a blistering address to the UN General Assembly in New York earlier this week, Donald Trump vowed to “totally destroy” North Korea if it targets the United States or its allies with nuclear weapons. The US President labelled North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un a “Rocket Man on a suicide mission”.

Mr Trump accused the “depraved” regime in Pyongyang of starving millions of its own people to fund its nuclear programme, and of torturing and killing “countless others” in its efforts to retain power.

Kim has shocked the world with a series of nuclear and ballistic missile tests in recent months and has vowed he will not rest until he has a nuclear arsenal to rival America’s.

Mr Trump vowed merciless reprisals if North Korea acts on its threats.

“No nation on Earth has an interest in seeing this band of criminals arm itself with nuclear weapons and missiles,” he said. “The United States has great strength and patience, but if it is forced to defend itself or its allies, we will have no choice but to totally destroy North Korea.”

The uncompromising language at the world’s leading diplomatic forum will dismay those hoping to avoid war on the Korean peninsula.

Downing Street has said the Government remains committed to finding a “peaceful resolution” to the crisis.

A spokesperson for Number 10 described Pyongyang’s recent actions as “provocative and destabilising”, but added: “No-one wants to see military action, but as we progress with efforts to secure a peaceful diplomatic resolution it would be wrong to rule anything out.”

In a wide-ranging speech, Mr Trump also took aim at a string of other countries on collision course with the US, including Iran, Venezuela and Cuba.

And he issued a veiled warning to China and Russia over their expansionist ambitions and their willingness to trade with North Korea.

The President savaged the Iran nuclear deal signed by his predecessor Barack Obama – and suggested the US could pull out of it.

The deal lifts sanctions against the Tehran regime in return for assurances it will drop its dream of building a nuclear bomb.

Mr Trump described the Iranian regime as a “corrupt dictatorship… which has turned a wealthy country, with a rich history and culture, into an economically depleted rogue state whose chief exports are violence, bloodshed and chaos”.

He added: “The Iran deal was one of the worst and most one-sided transactions the United States has ever entered into. Frankly, that deal is an embarrassment to the United States, and I don’t think you’ve heard the last of it. Believe me.”

Israel welcomed the intervention, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu saying he had “never heard a bolder or more courageous speech” at the UN. But veteran Democratic Senator Diane Feinstein said: “The goals of the United Nations are to foster peace and promote global co-operation.

“Today, the President used it as a stage to threaten war.”

“He aims to unify the world through tactics of intimidation, but in reality he only further isolates the United States.”

In an ominous warning, Mr Trump also warned the US “cannot stand by and watch” while the socialist regime in Venezuela “destroys a prosperous regime”.

Rounding on dictator Nicolas Maduro, he said: “The situation is completely unacceptable.”

He added: “The problem in Venezuela is not that socialism has been poorly implemented, but that socialism has been faithfully implemented. From the Soviet Union to Cuba to Venezuela, wherever true socialism or communism has been adopted, it has delivered anguish and devastation and failure.

“Those who preach the tenets of these discredited ideologies only contribute to the continued suffering of the people who live under these cruel systems.”

Mr Trump also issued a warning to world leaders on the need to tighten borders to stem the flow of migrants around the world. He said mass migration was “deeply unfair to both the sending and the receiving countries”.

And he warned that “substantial costs of uncontrolled migration” were “borne overwhelmingly by low-income citizens whose concerns are often ignored by both media and government”.

Mr Trump said he would not back away from his “America First” agenda – and urged other nations to follow suit.

“As President of the United States, I will always put America first,” he said. “Just like you, as the leaders of your countries, will always and should always put your countries first.”

Mr Trump also served notice on the UN that, like NATO, it could not expect the US to continue to pay an “unfair burden” towards its running costs.

The packed General Assembly hall greeted Mr Trump’s tough rhetoric with periods of silence punctuated by polite applause during his 42-minute speech.