President George W. Bush’s eagerness on Thursday to play up the significance of North Korea’s belated nuclear declaration and to praise the multilateral diplomacy that led to it must have caused wincing among hawkish supporters who remember his tough talk about confronting the “axis of evil” and the “pygmy” dictator Kim Jong-il.

Mr Bush, who removed North Korea from the provisions of the Trading with the Enemy Act and announced plans to rescind its designation as “state sponsor of terror”, did admit that the declaration was merely one step of many to come. He also said the US had no illusions about Mr Kim’s regime.