A preemptive strike, as radical and provocative as it would be, by its nature, would by no means have to be nuclear.
We could shoot those emp cruise missiles across North Korea shutting down their communications and maybe the missile sites . The. We could go in a bomb all the sites we know of and also bomb all their heavy duty stuff like tanks Anne submarines and ships. I think we have the tech to do this, and all without nukes . The military would surrender like the Iraqis. These poor people are all starving and don’t want to fight .