FOR THE third time this week, US President Donald Trump has cranked up the belligerent rhetoric. He’s like a character in a Quentin Tarantino film, a rogue cop who — facing a cartoon villain with a lighted match — threatens to douse the floor with kerosene.

Jeremy Corbyn’s call for face-to-face negotiations is, therefore, a welcome addition to the chorus of sanity that is urgently required. So, too, would be the proposals for talks from South Korean President Moon Jae In, were it not for his country’s continuing involvement in US-led war games around the borders of the North.

But there can be no doubt that in this case jaw-jaw is infinitely better than war-war. Should the cold war between the US and North Korea turn hot, the consequences would be calamitous for all the peoples of the Korean peninsula and surrounding region.