The U.S. has gamed out four or five different scenarios for how the crisis with North Korea will be resolved, and “some are uglier than others,” National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster said as tensions remain high between the two countries.
While McMaster said the threat from Pyongyang is “much further advanced” than anticipated and the Pentagon said the president has a “deep arsenal” to draw upon if needed, U.S. officials dismissed North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho’s comment that President Donald Trump’s warnings to Pyongyang at the United Nations amounted to a declaration of war.
“We’ve not declared war on North Korea,” White House spokeswoman Sarah Hucakbee Sanders said Monday. “And frankly the suggestion of that is absurd. We continue to seek the peaceful denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.”
Both governments have said “all options” are on the table in dealing with the tensions. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, speaking in
