North Korea’s continued pursuit of missiles and nuclear weapons threatens the United States, the Pentagon said, in a tacit admission that President Trump’s engagement with Kim Jong-un has failed.

The Pentagon warned of the danger from Pyongyang’s “increasingly sophisticated” nuclear and ballistic missile tests after a US general said that the North may be building a more powerful intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) capable of striking the American mainland.

“The United States and our allies face an increasingly threatening and complex strategic environment,” the report by the Department of Defence on the state of US nuclear deterrence, said. “Rogue regimes like North Korea and Iran are destabilising regions through their pursuit of nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programmes.”

In 2018 Mr Trump and Mr Kim held