Despite decades of arms control efforts, across multiple U.S. administrations and Pyongyang regimes, the global community now faces the fait accompli of a North Korea with a credible nuclear weapons program that shows little signs of stopping as it prepares to conduct another nuclear test.

The U.S. and its allies remain bereft of strategic options, having clinically underestimated both North Korea’s resilience and the amount of backing it would receive from China and Russia. While the U.S. continues to aim for complete denuclearization, both extended deterrence and sanctions have proven ineffective at imposing