Get out your chequebooks – it’s Kim Jong-un

Does anyone seriously believe that the current wave of bellicosity from North Korea justifies Britain spending £20 billion-plus on renewing Trident?

David Cameron does. But then as David Grace points out, Cameron believes in three impossible things before breakfast:

1. North Korea wants to launch a nuclear attack against the UK alone, not involving the USA or anyone else.
2. North Korea is capable of delivering a nuclear attack against the UK.
3. North Korea, which is not put off by the US nuclear and conventional capability, will be put off by Trident or its successor.

In today’s Guardian, Simon Jenkins – no left-wing disarmer – demolishes Cameron’s spurious arguments and exposes them as nothing more than the self-interest of the defence lobby:

The lunacies of a Korean dictator halfway round the world is music to the ears of defence lobbyists, arms manufacturers, security consultants, generals and admirals. It should rescue a few billion pounds from the cuts. All cry with one voice, “the Koreans are coming. Spend, spend, spend”. And the politicians capitulate, Cameron and the coalition, Ed Miliband and Labour, the Treasury, the press. Kim Jung-un has them on the run. He must be laughing.

And anyway, how can the North Koreans unleash and let slip the dogs of war? They’ve already eaten them.