Laura Rosenberger, an alumni of the State Department and National Security Council with an expertise in North Korea, discusses one of the most sobering aspects of US-North Korea relations, namely, the possibility that the end result is nuclear war.

"I really wish that I could say the risk of nuclear war with any country in the world is zero, and I certainly wish that I could say the risk of nuclear war with North Korea is zero," Rosenberger told Salon. "However, I think the risk is no risk, no amount of risk is really acceptable in this scenario with North Korea. Unfortunately I do think we are in a very difficult period of time with North Korea. Nuclear was is obviously the worst case scenario."

Rosenberger, who is the current director of the Alliance for Securing Democracy, a bipartisan, transatlantic initiative aligned with The German Marshall Fund that is trying to counter Russian efforts to undermine American democracy, added, "There's a lot of things that worry me about North Korea even before we get to the nuclear war scenario. So my biggest concern is actually the risk of miscalculation between the U.S. and North Korea."