The military option will remain on the table. If there is a good agreement to have, obviously it's worth waiting for and completing the negotiations. - Ash Carter

I hope that the North Koreans understand that the conclusions that we came to are conclusions that are embedded in America's security situation.

We need to change because the world is changing, and we need to anticipate what is next and be there first, as the US military has always been. So, the changes in our future, I think is something that we are all completely committed to.

I don't know how long the North Korean regime can last. But we can't just wait for them to collapse, because in the meantime, they can do lasting damage to our security.