NO-ONE should be carried away by the surprise announcement that Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un are to meet in the next few months, but there is no denying that it is a positive development.

Predictably, the US House foreign affairs committee claims that the talks initiative that emerged from contacts between the North Korean leader and South Korean President Moon Jae In shows that sanctions are “starting to work.”

If anything, it shows the opposite. Pyongyang has never previously conceded in the face of sanctions. Why should now be different?