Vice President Mike Pence, in a visit to South Korea Monday, declared the “era of strategic patience is over.” What that means, specifically, will determine the next phrase of U.S.-North Korean relations.

White House press secretary Sean Spicer did not offer a whole lot of detail on what specifically would come next on Monday during his daily press briefing. He said President Donald Trump will not tip his hand.

“Drawing red lines really hasn’t worked in the past.”

“Drawing red lines really hasn’t worked in the past,” he said. “He holds his cards close to the vest, and you’re not going to see him telegraphing how he’s gonna respond to any military or other situation going forward. That’s just something that he does not believe has served us well in the past.”

Relations have grown increasingly tense as North Korea works toward an intercontinental ballistic missile that could deliver a nuclear warhead to the U.S. mainland.

Trump has tried to get China, North Korea’s largest benefactor, to put more pressure on its communist ally. He also sent an aircraft carrier battle group to the region. But the president has not sounded eager for war.

“Gotta behave,” Trump said when asked by a reporter at the annual White House Easer Egg Roll if he had a message for North Korea. Asked if the situation could be resolved peacefully, he said, “Hopefully, it can.”

North Korea’s closed economy and society make it hard to influence with economic sanctions. But that does not mean that the U.S. cannot do more, according to experts on the communist regime.

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“The way to do that is to use that economic instrument of power,” said Bruce Bechtol, a security studies professor at Angelo State University in Texas.

Bechtol, a former Defense Intelligence Agency officer and author of “Red Rogue: The Persistent Challenge of North Korea,” told LifeZette that some 40 percent of North Korea’s economy is based on illicit activities. This includes things like cyber hacking and counterfeiting. But the majority of the profits come from arms sales to buyers in the Middle East and Africa.

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That network depends on international banks, Bechtol said. A U.N. report last month detailed the elaborate network of foreign enablers that help the North Korean regime evade sanctions.

Shutting that down would cause real pain, Bechtol said. He added that the administration has authority under the Patriot Act to freeze out banks and other institutions in foreign countries. That would cause a “snowball effect” as other countries followed suit, he said.

“That is what was not happening during the Obama administration, and that is what could happen in the Trump administration,” he said.

Bechtol compared it to successful U.S. attacks on al-Qaida’s banking access, although he added that it would be a far more complex endeavor against a nation-state and would have to include actions against front companies and foreign firms located in countries around the world. He said some of those foreign governments likely would willingly cooperate. He added that others, like China, would require pressure.

“That’s going to be a different story in every country,” he said.

Walter Lohman, director of the Asian Studies Center at the conservative Heritage Foundation, said the key to changing North Korea’s behavior is ratcheting up pressure on China. He said there are Chinese companies and multinational companies doing business in China that have contacts with North Korea.

Lohman pointed to the Chinese company ZTE, which last month agreed to pay a $1.19 billion fine — the largest penalty in a U.S. sanctions case — for selling electronics to North Korea and Iran. He said he worries Trump may be relying too heavily on Chinese commitments to rein in North Korea.

China has made and broken those promises before, Lohman said.

“We have to really press them and change their calculus … I’m afraid the administration has taken a step back,” he said.

Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) told CNN on Monday that he supports Trump’s decision not to draw “red lines.” But had added that the administration needs to be more aggressive in making sure China lives up to its commitments.

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“China needs to step to the plate. They’re talking all the good talk now. They’re saying all the right things,” he said. “But even back to February 18th when they said they quit buying coal, we know that there’s been coal purchased by China from North Korea since then. It’s time for them to toughen up and get serious about basically stopping North Korea from their bad behavior.”

Officially, the White House is not taking any options off the table. But Bechtol and Lohman both said a military solution is not feasible.

“It’s not that plausible,” Lohman said. “They have the capacity to destroy [South Korean capital] Seoul with artillery. They don’t even have to use nuclear.”

That leaves an unsatisfying mix of economic pressure, diplomacy, and deterrence.

“There’s no sort of silver bullet,” Lohman said. “There’s no easy things we can do.”