The US faces off against China and Russia over North Korea

In a well-informed article, Peter Symonds of wsws.org concludes:

The chief responsibility for creating this explosive tinderbox in North East Asia is the Trump administration. Far from North Korea “begging for war,” the US is systematically goading Pyongyang into making a move that would create the pretext for, in the words of US Defence Secretary Mattis, a “massive military response” that would result in the country’s “total annihilation.”