North Korea threatens "final destruction"

North Korea threatened South Korea with "final destruction" during a debate at the United Nations Conference on Disarmament on Tuesday.

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http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/02/19/us-nkorea-threat-idUSBRE91I0J520130219

I’m beginning to wonder if maybe it’s too late now to stop North Korea. 

President Bill Clinton's administration coaxed the North Koreans into signing an agreement to halt their nuclear program. But they cheated on the deal, and when the Bush administration exposed the fraud, the U.S. initiated a tougher policy. That didn't work either. In 2006, Pyongyang carried out its first nuclear detonation.

When Obama took office, his secretary of state made conciliatory gestures toward North Korea. What happened? Oh, you can guess. Within months, it launched a long-range missile and carried out a second nuclear test.

The assumption among both doves and hawks is that there is some action we can take that will show the regime the error of its ways. Hawks are the latest to have their turn: An editorial in The Wall Street Journal urged the president to threaten military strikes so Pyongyang knows "it faces a choice of giving up the bomb or failing."

But perhaps that's no longer a credible threat. The regime can now respond to any attack by using one of its nuclear weapons. But it doesn't even need that option: With a mass of artillery and rocket launchers within range of Seoul, it is fully capable of turning the capital into a "sea of fire," to use its charming phrase.

The North Koreans are staunchly resolved to build a large nuclear arsenal and a verity of delivery systems. We may entertain fantasies that we can stop them. But they are convinced our opportunity to stop them is long past.