WHY is Kim Jong-un spending so much time, money and effort building missiles that can be armed with a nuclear warhead? Perhaps it is not as the media would have you believe – that the North Korean leader is beyond the pale – but in the interests of self-preservation?

Having come to power, he would have taken a look at the world and seen what has happened to powerful leaders of sovereign countries that were browbeaten, bullied and ultimately – if still unwilling to bend to the foreign policy of the US and its puppet ally, the UK – deposed by force.

You only have to ask yourself, how many times has North Korea been engaged in war since the Korean War, or invaded another sovereign country? Then ask the same question about the US and UK. Kim knows that by having a nuclear weapon he has made it impossible for America to threaten his position as leader.

The US can shout all it likes but in the end, it will have to pull in its horns. Gunboat diplomacy is long past its sell-by date in the modern world. Some day America, like the UK, will have to understand the wise words of Winston Churchill: “Jaw, jaw not war, war”.

Walter Hamilton
Address supplied