WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — Mattis said the Defense Department works very closely with allies to ensure that there are multilateral military options and a military solution to the crisis.
"We want to use diplomacy [and] that's where we've been, that's where we are right now and that's where we hope to remain, Mattis said during a press briefing on Thursday. "Do I have military options? Of course, I do. That's my responsibility, to have those."
"What we're trying to do here is [be] loud and clear in the diplomatic arena: It is North Korea's choice," Mattis said. "So they are the only ones who are trying to nuclearize [the Korean peninsula] through provocations and rhetoric that is alarming to the entire world: This is a global problem."
Asked if he thought North Korean leader Kim Jong Un was a rational actor, Mattis said he would leave it to those seeking the answer to figure out themselves.
