One of the great promises from the Bush administration that we were told would come out of our involvement in Iraq was a Middle Eastern domino effect. By liberating Iraq and putting a democracy in place, it would trigger a series of likeminded reforms in nearby countries. There has been some evidence that this has begun to happen with the disarming of Libya. There has also been some civil unrest in Iran that seems to indicate a growing desire for democracy there.

At the same time, critics of the war argued that singling Iraq out among all the ruthless dictatorships in the world seemed arbitrary and rather suspicious. Why not North Korea or Iran, the critics wondered. Well, now it seems as if the North Korea domino is beginning to wobble a bit:

North Korea, probably the world’s most secretive and isolated nation, has offered an olive branch to the US by promising never to sell nuclear materials to terrorists, calling for Washington’s friendship and saying it does not want to suffer the fate of Iraq.

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Although their statements will be treated with scepticism in Washington, they suggest a reasoned view of international affairs in sharp contrast to the simplistic, bellicose and anti-American rhetoric used by junior officials and relayed to the world by the North Korean news agency.

In Mr Harrison’s first-hand report, published in Tuesday’s FT, North Korean leaders explicitly condemn al-Qaeda, and categorically reject US accusations that they would be willing to transfer nuclear technology to the Islamist terror group - or to anyone else.