President Donald Trump has touted his summit with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un as so great a breakthrough that Pyongyang is no longer a nuclear threat to the US. Yet he deems Iran, which does not have nuclear weapons, “a regime of great terror” and recently tore up a multi-party nuclear agreement with Tehran that took years to negotiate. How different are the Trump administration’s approaches to the two countries and what are their chances of success?
How different are the threats from North Korea and Iran?
Experts stress the nuclear threat from North Korea is more serious than from Iran, because Pyongyang has developed a nuclear arsenal and means of delivery that potentially puts the US at risk. Mr Trump claimed on Wednesday that there was no longer a nuclear threat from North Korea. But scientists estimate Pyongyang has dozens of nuclear warheads and long-range ballistic missiles that could theoretically reach US soil, and much of the programme remains shrouded in secrecy.