Editorial: Sleep tight, there's no world war, yet.

It's okay, North Korea is not about to explode into World War III. Here's three reasons why you can sleep soundly tonight:

1. Trump won't shoot first. He may say it's not off the table, but realistically he does not have the capability to take out Kim without Seoul, Japan, Guam, maybe even the USA itself taking a hit and killing perhaps millions of people. Won't happen.

2. Kim's not suicidal and won't shoot first either. He will use his nuclear capability to extort what benefits he can for his regime - including firstly survival and perhaps secondly invading South Korea - but that's going to unfold over years, not days.

3. Neither China nor Russia want Kim removed. They are quite happy having a country not aligned to the US on their borders. They will see that the children play nicely in the sandpit. The West may just have to accept a nuclear armed North Korea.

And here's three things I'm not so sure about:

1. Even leaders can have bad days. Could one rash tweet and Twitter start a world war? I lost all faith in impossible the day I found out things can exist in two places at once and that this is how quantum computers are a thing.

2. When you think of world governments you tend to think, certainly self-interested but nonetheless sane, actors. Kim and Trump challenge that assumption.

3. Everybody is confused. Blame click-baity news if you like, but when Trump tweets one thing and Secretary of State Tillerson does some spectacular back-pedalling five minutes later, even world leaders are scratching their heads at just how stable the situation is after all.

But let's end on a positive note. New Zealand's a relatively safe place to be if things do kick off. Unless it escalates bigtime in which case grab your woollies, it will get very cold for a long time.

Nite folks.