Republican Ohio Gov. John Kasich said despite "loose talk" of war with North Korea, the United States should not be anywhere close to going into battle against Kim Jong Un.
His comments came in a column for The Washington Post posted Monday night.
"With tensions continuing to build between the United States and North Korea, there's growing talk by politicians and TV pundits that we are on the brink of war," Kasich said. "In truth, we shouldn't be anywhere close.
"This increasingly hot war of words — including loose talk about the probability of war — does nothing to bring us closer to where we need to be on North Korea, especially when military options short of war remain on the table. In fact, with millions of lives at stake, waging a war of words is a distraction from the serious task at hand.
"Any kind of war — especially nuclear war — should not be an option until all other options are exhausted. And, in the case of North Korea, there are several roads not yet taken."
Kasich said there are additional sanctions that can be ordered against North Korea.
"We are nowhere near to applying the same type of restraints on North Korea that were successful in bringing Iran to the negotiating table," he said.
And he maintained the U.S. needs to apply more pressure on China.
"Actions should include targeting a greater number of Chinese banks that deal with North Korea, fining their U.S. subsidiaries and freezing their U.S. assets," Kasich said.
And he noted the U.S. should be working with its allies, particularly South Korea and Japan, "to threaten increased multilateral pressure to choke the North Korean regime."
"With millions of lives hanging in the balance, the last thing we need is to have politicians and pundits predicting odds on the probability of war," he said. "It's neither an accurate nor a helpful way to treat a complex international challenge."