The President claimed 'talk of appeasement with North Korea will not work'

Some of the greatest minds in Washington have for years tried to solve the North Korean conundrum.

Donald Trump's intellect can't be counted among them. That has not stopped him trying with potentially disastrous results.

Where carefully calibrated coordinated diplomacy is needed, he is using Twitter in a scattergun, contradictory manner that threatens a split with America's allies in the region when there has never been a greater need for unity.

He seems to think that this crisis can be solved 140 characters at a time. His ham-fisted interventions are proving the opposite.

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Only a united effort against North Korea has any chance of succeeding and yet over the weekend Mr Trump infuriated his South Korean allies, laying bare his differences in public with them on Twitter.

"South Korea is finding, as I have told them, that their talk of appeasement with North Korea will not work, they only understand one thing!"

It was a strange way of shoring up international solidarity to tackle the problem.

But he wasn't done.

If there is one thing Donald Trump needs to do in the crisis, just one thing, it is keeping China on side.

China holds the levers to controlling North Korea. If it wanted to it could bring its economy to its knees.

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But by the evening Trump had done his best to alienate Beijing too, threatening to cut off trade with any country doing business with North Korea.

China does a lot. Some analysts were charitable wondering whether he had misunderstood his briefing papers and had meant to say company instead of country.

But the impact has been the same - a furious retort from China, branding Trump's threat as unacceptable.

China has moved another step away from imposing the kind of sanctions on North Korea that would hurt.

In a month's time China's Communist Party meets for a crucial national congress.

This is not a time its leader Xi Jinping can afford to look like a running dog of the West.

Image: South Korea has performed missile drills in the wake of its neighbour's nuclear test

Succumbing to some private diplomatic persuasion is one thing. Giving in to public bullying quite another. It is hard to see Beijing taking a firmer line now.

It is hard to remember the last time around 280 characters did more geopolitical damage.

Twitter is no substitute for experienced diplomats. But there are fewer and fewer of those in the Trump administration anyway.

Many have resigned or taken early retirement and key positions remain unfilled.

But Donald Trump would be well advised to step away from his Twitter feed on North Korea and ask the diplomats he has left to pick up the pieces instead.