How to Make a Bad Situation in North Korea Worse

There are, as is often noted, no good options for dealing with North Korea. All the more reason for the U.S. not to make the few it does have even worse.

That's what President Donald Trump is doing by linking the security threat posed by North Korea with his trade agenda. Irked by China's failure to help the U.S. rein in North Korea's nuclear program, and having been stymied in his attempts to retaliate against Chinese steel dumping and intellectual-property infringements, he's vowing an implausible trade war with the U.S.'s largest trading partner. Even less rationally, the administration has dropped hints it's about to scrap a free-trade agreement with ally South Korea.