It has seemed to me for some time that nothing would stop that pudgy North Korean megalomaniac dictator from his personal ambition of becoming a nuclear power. ‘Personal’ may be the right word: it’s hard to believe that the typical North Korean subject welcomes the spending of hard-earned foreign currency on nuclear development costs.

Kim Jong-un must be gambling that his country’s sole ally of value, China, will hold the ground and dissuade Donald Trump from unleashing the full force of American power onto the Northern part of the Korean Peninsula.

That is a very dangerous gamble. The more that Kim continues to follow the nuclear road, the more certain it is that the US will not tolerate his ambitions.

The risk grows larger, the longer the international community wags its fingers at the pudgy little man. No more time to waste! Carthago delenda est. Today it’s the North Korean regime.