North Korea has been advancing its missile program further and further during the past year. Recently, their efforts have been focused on building long range missiles that could reach other international countries such as the United States.

On Wednesday Nov. 29, North Korea’s media released that Kim Jong Un, North Korean leader, launched a missile, the Hwasong-15 that reached the highest altitude ever recorded by a North Korean missile. The missile, which most likely broke upon re-entry into the atmosphere, only reached waters off the coast of Japan, but this shows that they are only getting closer to hitting the United States.

David Wright of the Union of Concerned Scientists spoke to CNN about the event.

“Such a missile would have more than enough range to reach Washington, DC, and in fact any part of the continental United States,” Wright said.

All President Donald Trump has said about the issue is that the U.S. will handle the situation. White House national security adviser HR McMaster recently spoke to an audience at the Reagan National Defense Forum in California. He explained that one of the ways the United States is trying to deal with the situation is turning to China to impose greater economic sanctions.

“I think it’s increasing every day, which means that we are in a race, really, we are in a race to be able to solve this problem,” McMaster said. “There are ways to address this problem short of armed conflict, but it is a race because [Kim Jong Un is] getting closer and closer, and there’s not much time left.”

The U.S. is thinking of other ways of handling the problem. There has been some encouragement for the US and China to normalize relations North Korea like Richard Nixon did with Mao Zedong after China’s first few nuclear tests. Japan and China, U.S. allies, will most likely oppose war because it not only will kill many people, but also, it would just increase Kim Jong Un’s position. Director at the Institute for National Security Strategy in Seoul Park Byung-kwang spoke to the Guardian.

“The crisis on the Korean peninsula is getting worse, which means the likelihood of Trump exerting more pressure and even [a] military strike is becoming more feasible,” Byung-kwang said.

The United States and South Korea both believe that a missile from North Korea could reach the U.S. sometime in 2018. It’s not official, though, because no one will know if they are successful until it actually happens.