How does Washington face Pyongyang's nuclear threats?
US newspapers have questioned the military actions the United States can take in the face of North Korea's nuclear dangers, amid escalating escalation between the two countries and mutual threats between President Kim Jong Il and his US counterpart Donald Trump.
The New York Times reported that US intelligence might come to Trump secretly and urgently to tell him that the North Koreans had placed a new ballast missile on the launch pad and that they could supply it with fuel in less than two hours and would be ready to launch a test flight in the ocean Or they may send him on a mission to strike North Korean territory.
She added that Trump might then initiate military action inside North Korea itself as a precautionary measure aimed at disrupting the impending launch of the missile and sending a firm and unambiguous message to President Kim to stop this work and stop retrying later.
The newspaper said that Trump recently raised the level of a series of threats against North Korea to approach the specter of military action against it, and that he kept repeating his threats to the Korean leader that he would regret if he attacked the island of Guam or any territory belonging to the United States.
US war planners, officials and diplomats insist there is no imminent military action, and no one sees US warships heading toward North Korea, nor has the United States evacuated its nearly 200,000 South Korean citizens.
Proactive strike:
However, military experts say that steering a preemptive military strike against Kim's missiles inside North Korea itself is considered one of the many possible scenarios in the coming weeks or months.
When the president issues orders, US warplanes quickly take off into the sky or Tomahawk missiles quickly launch from their naval destroyers close to the Korean peninsula, at their greatest speed to hit missile sites inside North Korean territory itself.
But military officials believe that Kim may not realize it is just a preemptive US strike, and may even think it is the first blow of a series of attacks by Washington on Pyongyang, prompting him to bomb Seoul in South Korea or Tokyo in Japan with a barrage of artillery shells And conventional missiles.
Kim may also order his army - and still talk to the New York Times - to march towards the demilitarized zone separating the two Koreas.
If Kim were to launch a first strike against the United States by firing several missiles at Guam's military base, Trump might order a full-scale attack on North Korea's missile fleet and its nuclear arsenal.