During his visits to Japan and South Korea in March, U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said the "diplomatic and other efforts of the past 20 years to bringing North Korea to a point of denuclearization have failed. So we have 20 years of a failed approach." Tillerson declared that, from now on, "all options are on the table" with regard to North Korea, and refused to rule out the use of military force.
In 2016, North Korea conducted two nuclear weapons tests and 19 missile test launches. It is also quickly developing the technology to create miniaturized nuclear devices and an intercontinental ballistic missile capable of reaching the U.S. mainland. If things go on this way, it is predicted that North Korea will have an arsenal of over 100 nuclear weapons by 2020, and will also have developed an ICBM capable of reaching the West coast of the United States within two to three years.
The first nuclear crisis on the Korean Peninsula followed the 1994 disclosure of North Korea's plutonium development, the second crisis ensued once the country's uranium enrichment program was exposed in 2002, and now the world is witnessing the third crisis over Pyongyang's nuclear program. This represents the first — and the gravest — diplomatic test of the U.S. administration of President Donald Trump.