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As to North Korea...
Well I was actually in S Korea just a year ago on a trip through Asia and visited the area near the border... but anyways here we go:
N. Korea isn't an easy military situation. But diplomatic wise, you have to keep its neighbors on our side (as they are - namely S. Korea and Japan) and most important of all, to keep China on our side.
If any country they're going to listen to, its going to be China (and Russia will have to be on our side as well).
If you can keep them contained by nations without making them feel threatened, the chance they'll do something crazy is far less likely.
In a way it also hearkens back to containment by Kennan - the system itself in there will slowly fail and deteriorate namely due to the fact that its conditions will only go down now that they're isolated with less supplies.
For their threatening overtures, however, one should be willing to use force to prevent nuclear launches anywhere - be it on china, s.korea, japan, or even the U.S.
TBH unless the country is bent on full scale invasion of N. Korea, its really sit-and-wait and handle each situation as they come because they are unpredictable.
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