‘Military Options’ For NK ‘Inc
The Trump administration is reportedly increasingly considering military options to solve North Korea, according to a former CIA official.“Military options are increasing, not decreasing” in Washington, D.C., Bruce Klingner, a former CIA deputy division chief for Korea and a senior research fellow for Northeast Asia at the conservative Heritage Foundation, revealed Thursday at a public roundtable at The Korea Society in New York, UPI’s Elizabeth Shim reports.“The probability of a military option is not zero,” he explained, adding that there are discussions inside the government about five options to “solve North Korea in 18 months.”Klingner suggested that a major provocation, such as a far-reaching intercontinental ballistic missile test could push the administration to take a more forceful approach to the problem.North Korea has recently threatened that it might test a hydrogen bomb in the Pacific or shoot down American military aircraft that fly too close. Klingner suggests that a “nuclear airburst” is “over the top” and, therefore, extremely unlikely.“I’m pretty sure they’re going to do an ICBM test,” Klingner explained. North Korea has conducted two tests of its Hwasong-14 ICBM, which has the ability to strike parts, if not most, of the continental U.S. in theory. In both tests, the rogue regime fired the missiles on a lofted trajectory rather than the standard minimal energy trajectory.