There’s a simple option for defusing the coming crisis with North Korea

But there’s another option. The United States and its allies could consider negotiating some form of humanitarian assistance for North Korea to address its declining domestic situation. After all, Kim is not unlike every other leader today whose main concern is to stem covid transmission, and he’s not open to Chinese help. He’s already rejected an offer of Chinese vaccines from Covax, the World Health Organization-backed initiative to distribute vaccine doses, because he does not trust them. Western humanitarian assistance, under the appropriate verification protocols, would not violate any of the current sanctions against North Korea under current United Nations Security Council resolutions and U.S. law.