The Yorkshire Post Says: It's time to put the phone down Mr Trump before your tweets spark a nuclear war

The name-calling and threats have all the hallmarks of a playground spat, only the stakes could scarcely be higher.

Earlier this week the White House took the unprecedented step of having to dismiss North Korea’s claim that a tweet by Donald Trump amounted to a declaration of war.

North Korea’s continuing nuclear and ballistic missile tests are cause for serious alarm and have been condemned by the international community. However, the situation has been exacerbated by the sabre-rattling language from both President Trump and the rogue state’s leader Kim Jong Un.

Bizarre map reveals ‘best place’ in Yorkshire to avoid WW3 nuclear missile strikeFormer US director of intelligence and President George W Bush’s ambassador to the UN, John Negroponte, has rightly called for this “hot rhetoric” to be toned down, while both South Korea and China have called for calm and a level-headed response.

There is no justification for North Korea’s deliberate acts of provocation, but equally this parlous situation must not be allowed to spiral out of control.

Diplomats have played down the risk of direct conflict but it is no thanks to President Trump who time and again has fallen short of the standards expected for such an important job.

His tendency to fire off missives via social media and to pick fights with all and sundry is unbecoming of the Commander-in-chief of the United States – a position once held by such notable figures as Abraham Lincoln, Franklin Roosevelt and Ronald Reagan. How times have changed.