and ballistic missiles threatens the entire world

with unthinkable loss of human life.

For the past year, the world's been extremely anxious

as it watched North Korea and the US

apparently edging ever closer to war.

There must now be hope that we are moving away from the path towards war,

but it's premature to say that it's the end of the crisis.

These are two very volatile leaders, Donald Trump

and Kim Jong-un.

And also the issues that they need to resolve are very, very difficult.

It's not at all clear that North Korea is ready

to abandon its nuclear weapons programme,

which is what Donald Trump has demanded in the past.

And so if they don't, it may be that the two leaders simply

reach a stalemate.

The risks are that once you have a summit between two leaders,

if they fail, then it's possible that diplomacy has simply

run out of road and you're looking

once again at the prospect of a military clash.

Normally, a summit like this would

be very carefully prepared by diplomats

who would know in advance, more or less, what

the prospects of an agreement are.

But this is much more spontaneous.

Well, clearly, the two leaders are the most important figures.

But there is a regional context.

This happened essentially because of a South Korean

diplomatic initiative.

And it was significant that it was

a South Korean national security advisor in Washington

who announced this.

They've brokered this deal.

And it's very important for the US that South Korea stays

on board because they are, after all,

the country that is most at risk from the North Korean nuclear programme.

And similarly, you cannot edit China out of this picture.

China is the great sponsor of North Korea.

It will be simultaneously pleased by the idea

that there is some kind of de-escalation going on,

but also perhaps unhappy at the idea

that China has not got a place at the table.