It certainly might feel that way if you’ve been paying attention to the news in the past 24 hours or so. On Monday, North Korea issued a stark warning to the United States: If you attack us, we will respond with nuclear weapons.
“Should the US pounce upon the DPRK with military force at last, the DPRK is ready to teach the US a severe lesson with its strategic nuclear force,” North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho said, using the acronym for the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, North Korea’s formal name.
On Tuesday, President Trump shot back, warning that North Korea “best not make any more threats to the US. They will be met with fire and fury like the world has never seen."
But as scary as all of that sounds, there is no real reason to think the US is actually planning to launch a war with North Korea anytime soon — which is the condition under which North Korea says it would actually try to launch a nuclear strike against the US.
While the Trump administration has repeatedly said that “all options are on the table” when it comes to dealing with the North Korean nuclear threat, it has largely pursued a moderate diplomatic approach to the crisis in practice — pushing for harsh new sanctions against North Korea at the United Nations Security Council and indicating the US would be willing to sit down for one-on-one talks with the North Koreans.