North Korea ‘trying to figure out if Trump is crazy’

Officials in the North Korean government are reportedly “trying to figure out” if Donald Trump is “crazy” or if his increasingly provocative stance against the rogue state is “just an act”, a US negotiator with Pyongyang has said.

Suzanne DiMaggio, a director at the think tank New America, told Politico that North Korean officials are confused by the US president’s increasingly “erratic behaviour” and “really want to know what his end game is”.

DiMaggio has held secret backchannel talks with North Korean officials four times over the past year, The Daily Telegraph reports, and has been a negotiator between the US and North Korea for more than 20 years.

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Her revelations come as Trump wraps up a 12-day tour of Asia, during which he tweeted that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un had insulted him by calling him “old”, countering that he would never call Kim “short and fat”.

According to DiMaggio, North Korean officials have also been questioning Trump’s “mounting problems” in the US, not least “the investigation being conducted by Robert Mueller” over the president’s ties with Russia. She said: “They are asking, ‘Why should we begin negotiations with the Trump administration when Donald Trump may not be president much longer?’”

There has been speculation in both North Korea and the US that Trump may be feigning unpredictability, emulating former US president Richard Nixon’s “Madman Theory” -whereby enemy countries were tricked into avoiding conflict with the US, believing Nixon would be irrational and unpredictable in his response.

The Washington Post says: “The two men’s styles may converge at one significant point - on the matter of foreign relations. Like Trump, Nixon was concerned to keep his adversaries guessing about his motives and temperament.”

However, CNN argues “Trump’s lack of predictability extends further than any notable predecessor, and there is no clear rhyme and reason to his behaviour - much less a coherent strategy”.