JEAIL > Volume 10(2); 2017 > Notes & Comments
Research Paper
Published online: November 30, 2017
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.14330/jeail.2017.10.2.06

Will Trump's Military Option against North Korea Work? Legal and Political Restraints

Eric Yong Joong Lee
562 Gwangnaruro, Kwangjin-gu #201, Seoul 05033 Korea.
Corresponding Author: grotian@hotmail.com

ⓒ Copyright YIJUN Institute of International Law
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Abstract
North Korea's nuclear weapons and missiles are an unprecedented threat to the security of the United States, which has never been attacked by weapons of mass destruction. Pyongyang's provocations irritated President Trump and led him to openly consider military attacks against North Korea. The possibility of armed conflict between the United States and North Korea increased as both sides exchanged aggressive rhetoric. Military attacks against North Korea are virtually impossible in a legal as well as a practical sense. They will bring only disaster to all involved, including the US. The best way to resolve North Korea's nuclear issue is to rehabilitate the multilateral channel for dialogue and then begin talks. What if President Trump, however, implemented military options against North Korea because of the nuclear weapons development? The focus of this essay is to explore whether Trump can adopt military options against North Korea and if so, what legal and political considerations he must take.

Keywords : Trump, Kim Jong Un, North Korea, Nuclear Test, NPT, Military Option, Security Council Resolution 2375

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