Some Creative Ways to Deal with North Korea

The Trump administration often talks about North Korea policy as if it’s an on-off switch. 

President Trump thundered Tuesday that the United States would “totally destroy” North Korea to defend itself and its allies. But Defense Secretary Jim Mattis blandly insisted the next day that it “is still a diplomatically led effort.” 

Somewhere in this maze of public statements — including Thursday’s announcement of new economic sanctions on North Korea — there’s a nuanced American policy. But the seeming binary options are weirdly reminiscent of the nuclear standoff of the Cold War, when the only choices seemed to be a conflict with massive loss of life — or surrender to the adversary’s demands.