Tillerson and Mattis are reportedly trying to hold Trump back from striking North Korea

strike North Korea, while his national security adviser is pushing for a "bloody nose" attack, according to recent reports in The Telegraph and The Wall Street Journal.
Rex Tillerson, the secretary of state, is reportedly key in pushing for peace, but he may be on his way out.
A US strike would mean it trusts that North Korea's leader, Kim Jong Un, won't escalate it into an all-out war that could kill millions.

The Trump administration is reportedly debating a "bloody nose" attack on North Korea, with the president's inner circle split and apparently teetering between endorsing the strike and holding out hope for diplomacy.

Both The Telegraph and The Wall Street Journal have recently reported on the divided White House, with both publications portraying Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis as trying to caution President Donald Trump against the strike and the national security adviser, H.R. McMaster, as advocating it.

The reports come after months of mixed messages and dozens of shifts in the US's stance on North Korea.

The "bloody nose" strategy, which calls for a sharp, violent response to some North Korean provocation, puts a lot of weight on the US's properly calibrating an attack on North Korea and Pyongyang's reading the limited strike as anything other than the opening salvo of an all-out war.

For that reason, even the limited strike envisioned by North Korea hawks carries a tremendous risk of global - and possibly nuclear - catastrophe.In mid-December, Tillerson made headlines by appearing to announce a major change in the US's North Korea policy.

"We're ready to talk anytime North Korea would like to talk, and we're ready to have the first meeting without precondition," Tillerson said.

Asked specifically about the apparent shift, the White House said, "The president's views on North Korea have not changed."

Meanwhile, McMaster flew to the opposite end of the spectrum, saying the chance of war was "increasing every day" and telling BBC News that the US would "compel the denuclearization of North Korea without the cooperation of that regime" if needed.

Mattis, characteristically, has been tight-lipped on the subject.

Throughout his presidency, Trump has also appeared all over the map on North Korea, alternating between relishing the opportunity to negotiate with the country's leader, Kim Jong Un, and taunting him about the size and power of his nuclear arsenal.

At one point, Trump directly undercut Tillerson, telling him he was "wasting his time" trying to talk to North Korea.