FORMER Prime Minister Gordon Brown has said that a nuclear armed North Korea risks world "stability and prosperity".

Adressing the Sustainable Silk Roads conference in Edinburgh, Mr Brown laid out his vision for partnerships between the East and West which can bring growth to the global economy.

However, he believes that dangers such as the secretive rogue state's nuclear ambitions and the rise of populism in the west must be overcome, and that globalisation needs a human face.

He said: “I fear for the stability and prosperity of a world where North Korea is acquiring nuclear weapons, where the American-China relationship is faltering, where protectionism remains on the rise, where the West remains divided and where globalisation is leaderless and lacks a human face.

“But the fourth industrial revolution is underway, creating opportunity and insecurity in equal measure.

“China has said that it will shed 80million manufacturing jobs between now and 2030 as the country moves out of low-cost manufacturing and begins to specialise in higher-value products and services.

“The $900billion investment China is making in the new Silk Road from China to Europe will create jobs in Asia and Eastern Europe and, with stronger transport links by road, sea and air, will enable the United Kingdom and the European Union to sell to an Asia continent which will be responsible for 40 per cent of all consumer spending during the 2020’s."

Speaking in the newly-refurbished McEwan Hall, Mr Brown said that China and the west must make a "grand bargain" to halt North Korea, and work together are to prevent future financial crises.

He added: “Eurasia, linked by the Silk Road - and China' s new engagement with Europe and the jobs that can come from it - is the biggest story in town for the future of the world economy.

“And I believe the world will need reformed global institutions, from an updated World Bank and IMF to an expanded G20, to cope with the rise of China and Asia.

“Anti-globalisation protests will almost certainly mushroom unless Asia, Europe and America can devise new rules of the road for living together."