Peter writes:
"Perhaps its time to start making policy toward North Korea thinking that they might be around for a while as a nuclear state."
I couldn't agree more. So what do you think about this idea?
Agree with comments re lack of imagination.
btw, I'm far from a dedicated Star Wars fan, but I did happen to see the one (it was Return of the something-or-other) where Yoda says: "Difficult to see, the future is." 
(Once tried to use this quote as an epigraph.)
The simple fact is that any country can make nuclear weapons terrifying enough to scare hell out of other countries. WMDs in general are a lot simpler yet and can be delivered by mail.
China should be worried about North Korea since they can literally throw WMDs across their common border. It's somewhat teltale that China doesn't seem to be worried. Could mass destruction be a part of their overall plan, getting rid of a few hundred million Chinese? Their number one problem is population. They let over 30 million die of starvation, 1959-1961 when the rest of the world would have supplied food if asked.
World population is at the breaking point right now and it's not getting any better. Reliable food supplies only cover about 2/3 of those alive. That leaves over 2 billion at risk from some rather simple and often occuring natural events like volcanic erruptions that have temporarily halted food production many times in the past.
China is at the point in food shortages and will stay there without a substantial population implosion. They certainly don't need the N Koreans to feed too. So maybe there's more to their thinking than meets the eye given our own food producing capabilities. It's just a matter of time until the people of earth consume the planet.
It's interesting how our morality gurus are in the "stop research" frame of mind while insisting birth control is immoral. The road to hell is paved with false morality.
correction--Yoda quote is from Episode 2: Attack of the Clones.
Not sure why the article focuses on the 1997 study. Well before that in 1994, there was near certainty in Washington--and Seoul, tellingly--that collapse was emminent. Similarly, there were optimistic predictions that Kim Jong-Il wouldn't be able to get a firm grip on power after his father died in 1994. I remember a ROK government official's 1993 reaction to the DPRK nuclear program: "why should we worry, the nuclear weapons will be ours soon."
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