United States President Donald Trump’s focus on North Korea is playing into Chinese hands and, by default, further weakening the US position in a Southeast Asia increasingly subject to Chinese carrots and sticks. Trump’s “war” on the North makes little sense either at a time when the South seems about to elect as president Moon Jae-in from the Democratic party aiming for some dialogue with Pyongyang. Many in the South were already unhappy with Trump’s demand they pay for the Thad missile system, about which they have reservations anyway.