As U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson warned Washington's "strategic patience" with North Korea has ended and "all options are on the table" to slow its nuclear ambitions, U.S. and South Korean forces were preparing for a range of military scenarios.
South Korean and U.S. personnel are involved in military drills that will run until the end of April. These exercises have been a feature of life on the peninsula since the Korean War ended in a 1953. In recent years, they have become larger and more realistic.
Every U.S. president since at least Bill Clinton has confronted North Korea's weapons program and been offered a range of potential military action to tackle them. So far, none has been willing to strike — primarily because all the options are bad, particularly given the risk of North Korean retaliation that could turn the peninsula, and perhaps the wider region, into a bloodbath. At worst, violence on the peninsula could even drag the United States into war with China.