Before he was excommunicated from Trumpworld, former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon gave a blunt assessment of one of the most intractable challenges Donald Trump would face. “There’s no military solution [to North Korea], forget it,” Bannon told the American Prospect. “Until somebody solves the part of the equation that shows me that 10 million people in Seoul don’t die in the first 30 minutes from conventional weapons, I don’t know what you’re talking about, there’s no military solution here, they got us.”

The long-held belief among experts and world leaders alike is that a pre-emptive strike against Pyongyang would incite a military response from the Kim Jong Un regime and hasten widespread destruction on the Korean Peninsula. But the Trump administration has never been one to adhere to long-held beliefs, and according to The Wall Street Journal, it is quietly debating a limited military strike against Pyongyang.

Dubbed the “bloody nose” strategy, the idea would be to mount a targeted attack against a North Korean facility in response to a nuclear or missile test by the regime. With such a strike, the U.S. would seek to demonstrate the potential consequences of further destabilizing behavior, without inciting an all-out war. But administration officials reportedly remain split over what tack the U.S. should take, with Defense Secretary James Mattis and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson continuing to push for a diplomatic solution hinging on a continued “maximum pressure” campaign of economic sanctions and diplomatic alienation, while National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster argues that military options should also be discussed.

The president’s stance on the matter remains difficult to interpret. At times he has seemingly undercut Tillerson’s efforts, and he has continued to ratchet up his Twitter rhetoric, recently boasting that his nuclear button is “bigger” than Kim’s. But last week, when South Korea accepted North Korea’s invitation to peace talks, Trump seemed to throw his weight behind diplomacy, telling reporters, “I always believe in talking,” and adding that he “[wouldn’t] have a problem with that at all” were Kim to approach the U.S. about opening a dialogue.

On the surface, the recent round of talks between North and South Korea proved fruitful: on Tuesday, officials from Pyongyang and Seoul struck an agreement that will allow North Korea to send a delegation of athletes to the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics next month. Though the agreement has been hailed from some corners as a symbolic step toward a diplomatic solution to the global standoff with the Kim regime over its nuclear program, other experts remain unmoved. As Daniel Russel, a former assistant secretary of state for East Asia, told The Washington Post, “Pyongyang’s pattern is to raise tensions to a fever pitch, dangle a conciliatory offer, collect any and all concessions, then rinse and repeat.”