A county that has been irrelevant in recent US history has recently become a greater threat – North Korea.

North Korea has made countless threats towards the United States and its allies. For instance, On Aug. 13, a North Korean news agency said that they would shoot missiles at Andersen Air Force base located on Guam to “send a serious warning signal to the US,” according to CNN.

Guam is home to around 160,000 Americans including around 7,000 soldiers. The threats aren’t the only part of this situation that is frightening; the madness of Kim Jong Un is disturbing. He has killed countless officials in his government, including his own uncle and his uncle’s family, as reported by NY Daily News and countless other news agencies. North Korea is a full blown dictatorship and there are no controls on his actions within his borders. Americans can agree that Kim Jong Un absolutely needs to be stopped. The only question left is – how?

The first option America has is to negotiate. In order to negotiate, somehow President Donald Trump would need to propose an agreement that Kim would consider. Sanctions won’t work well because Kim is not concerned with his own citizens or family’s well being. That’s the problem –  it’s almost impossible to dictate what a dictator does.  

The second option that America has is immediate war. When you have a threat what do you do with it? Kill it. America has been fortunate enough to not be in range from Kim Jong Un’s weapons, but many other countries are. So, what should America do- eliminate the threat? America striking first would most likely lead to a domino effect. China and Russia are North Korea’s closest things  to “allies” and the US striking first without any warning could possibly lead to increased tensions with these two countries. Even James Mattis, the United States Defense Secretary,  said that attacking North Korea would be “catastrophic” and “more serious in terms of human suffering than anything we have seen since 1953.” per FP.

The third option is to simply wait. With more than 26 million people and 28,000 American soldiers in Seoul, South Korea, America is in a pickle. North Korea has thousands of cannons and possibly nuclear weapons aimed at Seoul according to the HuffingtonPost. Seoul is only 25 miles away from the North Korean border which means that it is in range for the weapons. With so many people at risk, if the US would strike it would need to be without any warning and it would need to be quick, as Jerry Hendrix, a retired navy captain put it, the strike would need to be “swift” and the war would be “defined during the first minute of combat.”

So what options do we truly have? America striking first would lead to an all-out war and it’s impossible to negotiate with an unstable dictator, so all we have left is to wait- or is it? There is one more solution- an insider job. America may be able to convince someone in Kim’s organization to turn on him. This is difficult because Kim Jong Un has brainwashed his people and anyone that questions him. let alone tries to kill him. could be killed.

With “all options left on the table” what should America do?  Waiting is the answer. Kim Jong Un has yet to do anything that has harmed Americans outside of North Korea and as long as that doesn’t change, the US should continue with sanctions but take no other action. As long as everything stays “talk” the US and everyone in the world should be just fine… for now.