Rex Tillerson, reportedly the voice of restraint in the Trump administration, won't rule out a 'bloody nose' strike on North Korea

REUTERS/ Bryan R. Smith/Pool

US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson at a UN meeting with Japan and South Korea in 2017.

• Secretary of State Rex Tillerson pointedly left military action on the table.
• At a multilateral meeting in Canada, he said North Korea could "trigger" a harsh response if they shun diplomatic engagement.
• The White House is reportedly considering a "bloody nose" strike, on North Korea, which Tillerson wouldn't rule out.
• Tillerson reportedly is one of the voices pushing against the strike, but his refusal to rule it out shows how seriously the idea is being taken.

President Donald Trump's "maximum pressure" strategy of dealing with North Korea has begun to take shape after Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, supposedly a voice of restraint and diplomacy, refused to rule out a military strike against the Kim regime.

"We have to recognize that the threat is growing and if North Korea does not chose the pathway of engagement, discussion, negotiation, then they themselves will trigger an option," Tillerson said after a multilateral meeting in Vancouver, Canada.

Asked directly about reports from US officials that the National Security Council is considering a small strike on North Korea, Tillerson refused to rule it out.

He would only say that he was "not going to comment on issues that have yet to be decided among the National Security Council or the president."

The meeting Tillerson attended hosted officials from 20 nations that had backed South Korea in the original Korean War of 1950-1953.

It ended with a loose agreement to consider more sanctions on North Korea and to push for a diplomatic solution to the crisis.

But Tillerson, the US's top diplomat and reportedly one of the voices in Trump's ear arguing against a strike, hardly mentioned diplomacy outside the context of it being an alternative to war.

With the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics approaching in February and continuing until March, the US has agreed to halt military drills with South Korea, and bilateral talks between the two Koreas seem to have cooled previously soaring tensions.

National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster reportedly dismissed these talks as "diversions," and has been seeking to upend the stalemate that has kept the US from reacting to North Korean provocations for decades.

A limited strike on North Korea, one that would assert US resolve and power without crossing the threshold of intolerability after which Kim Jong Un may feel compelled to retaliate massively, could have tremendous strategic effect.

That the meeting in Vancouver, which focused on sanctions implementation and diplomacy, became upstaged by a dispassionate warning of war from the US's top negotiator, may indicate how closely the current administration is considering a strike that could lead to all-out conflict.