White House national security adviser H.R. McMaster said on Friday there is a military option for handling North Korea's missile and nuclear testing.
Speaking at the White House and quoted by The Washington Examiner, McMaster stressed that the administration again wants new sanctions against North Korea to work. At the same time, he warned that the regime has stepped up testing and that means that "we're out of time."
"We've been kicking the can down the road, and we're out of road," he said. "So for those who have said and commenting about the lack of a military option, there is a military option."
McMaster stressed, however, that the Trump administration is still hopeful that new UN sanctions against North Korea will deter the regime, and stressed that military action is "not what we would prefer to do."
"So, what we have to do is call on all nations, call on everyone to do everything we can to address this global problem short of war," he said. "So, that is implementing now these significant sanctions that have just now gone into place. And it is convincing everyone to do everything that they can — and that it's in their interest to do it."
On Thursday night, North Korea launched a missile over Japanese airspace, for the second time in a month.
The missile launch came days after North Korea announced it had successfully tested a hydrogen bomb, its sixth and most powerful nuclear test.
Following the nuclear test, the UN Security Council responded imposed new sanctions on Pyongyang.
The new sanctions ban textile exports, cut off natural gas shipments to North Korea, place a ceiling on deliveries of refined oil products and cap crude oil shipments at their current level.
In addition, countries are barred from issuing new work permits to North Korean laborers sent abroad and are asked to report on the date for ending existing contracts.
However, they do not include a full oil embargo and a freeze on the foreign assets of North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un. The U.S. demanded that these be included but dropped those demands in a bid to win support for the resolution from China and Russia.
North Korea vowed to accelerate its weapons programs in response to the sanctions. On Thursday, hours before its latest missile launch it threatened to use nuclear weapons on the United States and Japan.
(Arutz Sheva’s North American desk is keeping you updated until the start of Shabbat in New York. The time posted automatically on all Arutz Sheva articles, however, is Israeli time.)