Why do you think the u.s. is talking about going to "no first strike policy."
The US is the only nation with very small nuclear warheads with adjustable yield that can be launched by artillery. Using them would be a first strike, but not enough to provoke the all ending counter move with all ballistic missiles at once. In theory. But every nuclear power has an automatism implemented to make sure that a counter strike takes place even if the command structure breaks down: The strike starts automatically if specific radioactive elements are in the air. Russia and China made very clear that they will not disable that mechanism, but instead trigger the counter move manually even after a very small nuclear attack. This makes these small warheads useless, and without them, a first strike policy is useless too.
The u.s. occupation government wants a war not a nuclear apocalypse.
Neocon wars are always occupational. They select a small, well-defined theater like Iraq, Afghanistan and Syria. Then they make it a permanent war that can go on for decades. But they have to invent a story first that makes them the good ones - weapons of mass destruction or a terrorist breeding ground for example. This limits the potential future war theaters, leaving only North Korea as the baddies. But that would be a too short war because of the logistics.
The other possible war theater is the US itself. With NATO and PLA under UN umbrella on one side, and "domestic terrorists" and "deserters" on the other side. It will take another 10 years until they can start this war, but they are working hard on it.
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