diff --git a/dist-raw/node-esm-resolve-implementation.js b/dist-raw/node-esm-resolve-implementation.js
index 1a5846673..a3da2f9a0 100644
--- a/dist-raw/node-esm-resolve-implementation.js
+++ b/dist-raw/node-esm-resolve-implementation.js
@@ -50,37 +50,7 @@ const {
   Stats,
 } = require('fs');
 // const { getOptionValue } = require('internal/options');
-const { getOptionValue } = (() => {
-  let options;
-  function parseOptions() {
-    if (!options) {
-      options = {
-      '--preserve-symlinks': false,
-      '--preserve-symlinks-main': false,
-      '--input-type': undefined,
-      '--experimental-specifier-resolution': 'explicit',
-      ...parseExecArgv()
-      }
-    }
-  };
-  function parseExecArgv () {
-    return require('arg')({
-      '--preserve-symlinks': Boolean,
-      '--preserve-symlinks-main': Boolean,
-      '--input-type': String,
-      '--experimental-specifier-resolution': String
-    }, {
-      argv: process.execArgv,
-      permissive: true
-    });
-  }
-  return {
-      getOptionValue: (opt) => {
-        parseOptions();
-        return options[opt];
-      }
-  };
-})();
+const { getOptionValue } = require('./node-options');
 const { sep } = require('path');
 
 const preserveSymlinks = getOptionValue('--preserve-symlinks');
diff --git a/dist-raw/node-options.js b/dist-raw/node-options.js
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..f27a44689
--- /dev/null
+++ b/dist-raw/node-options.js
@@ -0,0 +1,83 @@
+// Replacement for node's internal 'internal/options' module
+
+exports.getOptionValue = getOptionValue;
+function getOptionValue(opt) {
+  parseOptions();
+  return options[opt];
+}
+
+let options;
+function parseOptions() {
+  if (!options) {
+    options = {
+      '--preserve-symlinks': false,
+      '--preserve-symlinks-main': false,
+      '--input-type': undefined,
+      '--experimental-specifier-resolution': 'explicit',
+      ...parseArgv(getNodeOptionsEnvArgv()),
+      ...parseArgv(process.execArgv)
+    }
+  }
+}
+
+function parseArgv(argv) {
+  return require('arg')({
+    '--preserve-symlinks': Boolean,
+    '--preserve-symlinks-main': Boolean,
+    '--input-type': String,
+    '--experimental-specifier-resolution': String
+  }, {
+    argv,
+    permissive: true
+  });
+}
+
+function getNodeOptionsEnvArgv() {
+  const errors = [];
+  const envArgv = ParseNodeOptionsEnvVar(process.env.NODE_OPTIONS || '', errors);
+  if (errors.length !== 0) {
+    // TODO: handle errors somehow
+  }
+  return envArgv;
+}
+
+// Direct JS port of C implementation: https://github.com/nodejs/node/blob/67ba825037b4082d5d16f922fb9ce54516b4a869/src/node_options.cc#L1024-L1063
+function ParseNodeOptionsEnvVar(node_options, errors) {
+  const env_argv = [];
+
+  let is_in_string = false;
+  let will_start_new_arg = true;
+  for (let index = 0; index < node_options.length; ++index) {
+      let c = node_options[index];
+
+      // Backslashes escape the following character
+      if (c === '\\' && is_in_string) {
+          if (index + 1 === node_options.length) {
+              errors.push("invalid value for NODE_OPTIONS " +
+                  "(invalid escape)\n");
+              return env_argv;
+          } else {
+              c = node_options[++index];
+          }
+      } else if (c === ' ' && !is_in_string) {
+          will_start_new_arg = true;
+          continue;
+      } else if (c === '"') {
+          is_in_string = !is_in_string;
+          continue;
+      }
+
+      if (will_start_new_arg) {
+          env_argv.push(c);
+          will_start_new_arg = false;
+      } else {
+          env_argv[env_argv.length - 1] += c;
+      }
+  }
+
+  if (is_in_string) {
+      errors.push("invalid value for NODE_OPTIONS " +
+          "(unterminated string)\n");
+  }
+  return env_argv;
+}
diff --git a/src/index.spec.ts b/src/index.spec.ts
index 3e64030ae..9c0a37d34 100644
--- a/src/index.spec.ts
+++ b/src/index.spec.ts
@@ -767,8 +767,33 @@ describe('ts-node', function () {
 
           return done()
         })
+      })
+
+      describe('supports experimental-specifier-resolution=node', () => {
+        it('via --experimental-specifier-resolution', (done) => {
+          exec(`${cmd} --experimental-specifier-resolution=node index.ts`, { cwd: join(__dirname, '../tests/esm-node-resolver') }, function (err, stdout) {
+            expect(err).to.equal(null)
+            expect(stdout).to.equal('foo bar baz biff\n')
+
+            return done()
+          })
+        })
+        it('via NODE_OPTIONS', (done) => {
+          exec(`${cmd} index.ts`, {
+            cwd: join(__dirname, '../tests/esm-node-resolver'),
+            env: {
+              ...process.env,
+              NODE_OPTIONS: '--experimental-specifier-resolution=node'
+            }
+          }, function (err, stdout) {
+            expect(err).to.equal(null)
+            expect(stdout).to.equal('foo bar baz biff\n')
 
+            return done()
+          })
+        })
       })
+
       it('throws ERR_REQUIRE_ESM when attempting to require() an ESM script while ESM loader is enabled', function (done) {
         exec(`${cmd} ./index.js`, { cwd: join(__dirname, '../tests/esm-err-require-esm') }, function (err, stdout, stderr) {
           expect(err).to.not.equal(null)