Originally Posted by
Milkman
There are not many real options for the north korea problem. They already have nukes and missles that can deliver them. That makes war a very costly situation. Not to mention that china and russia will not be pleased with regime change in north-korea.
Kim jong un primary objective is selfpersevation. He needs to secure his own regime against foreign initiated regime change. Keep in mind that verbal treats against the north korean regime came before trump. Bush jr already called them member of the axis of evil together with Iraq, libya, syria, iran and cuba. Half of those countries where either invaded, plunged into civil war where the west actively supports opposition groups and/or have their regime changed. Nukes are an insurrance policy against direct invasion. Kim jong un is never going to give up his most important saveguard against invasion. There is simply nothing any foreign power can offer that brings the same level of security. Ukraine is a good example of why a diplomatic agreement will not work. Ukraine gave up the 3th largest nuclear arsenal in the world in exchange from security garantees from US, Russian federation and european powers. Dumbest move ever because Putin could take what he wants. Kim took lessons from the annexation of crimea and the war in east-ukraine.
So in reality Trumps options are extremely limited. He cannot persuade kim jong un to give up his nukes and missles and removing him is too costly.
At the same time doing nothing will result in growing capabilities of north-korea. With sanctions and diplomacy that growth rate might be slowed down.
Most likely the US will do a lot of barking but no bite. Nobody wins when nukes start flying and both Trump an Kim jong un are smarther then most people give them credit for.