US proposed military strategy against North Korean nuclear program

Three options are being considered by the US military for the neutralization of the North korean missile threat.

1. The offshore option: The United States launches Tomahawk cruise missiles from a Navy ship or submarine. This is the least risky option since it doesn’t involve traversing North Korean territory, and would resemble Trump’s strikes against the Syrian military for using chemical weapons, but there’s no guarantee that North Korea would refrain from retaliating.

2. The aerial option: U.S. stealth bombers or fighter aircraft conduct air strikes over North Korea. Such an approach is more conducive to military escalation than the first option. The North Korean government knows that U.S. bombers are capable of carrying nuclear weapons, and the United States might need to take out North Korean air defenses to successfully deploy some of these planes. Even if the U.S. operation is limited in scope, North Korea may not interpret it that way.

3. The high-tech options: A U.S. bomber drops a Massive Ordnance Penetrator, a bunker-busting bomb that has never been used in combat, on hard-to-reach targets such as underground nuclear facilities. Or the U.S. trots out other new technologies, such as electromagnetic railguns mounted on warships. Using these weapons would set a precedent that other countries could emulate, and it’s unclear whether they would be any more effective than lower-tech options.

Depending on the military assets used and the purpose of the strikes, the Trump administration could hit a variety of targets, including:

1. Facilities for producing and storing nuclear material and nuclear weapons

2. Facilities for producing and storing missiles

3. Missile launchers, particularly North Korea’s expanding fleet of mobile platforms

4. Ports for submarines capable of launching missiles

5. Artillery positions near the DMZ that could be used in a retaliatory attack