“All of the war-game solutions—they are all horrific,” one current State Department staffer told me, responding to a report that the administration is weighing a limited, pre-emptive military strike if North Korea tests another missile. Other diplomats I spoke with also emphasized that the odds of a deadly miscalculation were unacceptably high. “I think most folks at State, especially the Korea hands, feel it would be a big mistake—it wouldn’t work, and it would unnecessarily imperil and undermine our alliance with Seoul and put Japan at great risk. It would also likely force the Chinese to revert to greater defense of their neighbor,” a second State Department staffer told me.