The United States is drawing up plans for a "bloody nose" military strike at North Korea to stop its nuclear weapons program, the U.K.-based Telegraph reported.
According to the Telegraph, one option is to destroy a launch site before it is used by Kim Jong Un's regime for a new missile test.
Stockpiles of weapons could also be targeted, the Telegraph reported.
The Telegraph reported three unnamed sources confirmed military options were being worked up.
Three sources – two former US officials familiar with current thinking and a third figure in the administration – confirmed military options were being worked up.
"The Pentagon is trying to find options that would allow them to punch the North Koreans in the nose, get their attention, and show that we're serious," a former U.S. security official briefed on policy told the Telegraph.
The report said the Trump administration had the April 7 strike on a Syrian airfield in mind as a blueprint for the move against North Korea.
Jeffrey Lewis, the director of the East Asia Nonproliferation Program at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies, dismissed the effectiveness of the reported plan.
Instead of using designated launch sites, North Korea puts its missiles on mobile launchers, some of which have treads to launch from off-road locations, Business Insider pointed out.
According to BI, the "bloody-nose scenario" comes down to a gamble on whether North Korea is ready to enter all-out war over a limited strike.
"North Korea, despite having the weaker hand militarily, has often gambled that the U.S. and South Korea value prosperity and peace — albeit an uneasy peace — too much to respond tit-for-tat to its military provocations," BI's Alex Lockie wrote.
"A U.S. attack on North Korea might just call a long-standing bluff and show that Pyongyang's bark is worse than its bite — or it might unleash nuclear war."