I might be getting Poes Law'd here.
We should leave North Korea alone for heaven's sake. Why is it in America's interest to wage war against them? North Korea has no global influence against us (unlike Iran) and are only interested in looking after themselves. The only reason I see us being tough on NK is to help our ally South Korea. But is it really worth helping SK this much? What do we get in return? I hate the fact that we have tens of thousands of troops posted there. If there is a war or if NK does something stupid they will be the first ones to die. Why should our soldiers sacrifice for South Korea?
Alliances are two ways. You support your allies because your allies support you.
But onto the greater point - the US has a global empire. It's an economic rather than a territorial empire and it spans from South Korea through Japan, South America and into Europe, Africa and the Middle East. Part of the consequence is this is that they must maintain interests on many different fronts. Not only is SK a major economic market, it's also 200 miles off the coast of China who is an economic enemy.
Also here's the reality: North Korea are going to get their nukes and there's nothing the West can do about it. The only way to stop them is to wage war against them and that is certainly out of the question. If South Korea wants war they can do it themselves.
Not only is it not out of the questions, it's a matter of time until it happens and there's nothing anybody can do to avert it. NK have no choice but to turn the wheel as it keeps them in power. The US have no choice but to match to protect SK.
A big difference here though is that for the North Koreans to win they needs thousands of artillery shells, missiles and soldiers. For SK to win the war they need one bullet and a pair of binoculars.
And you know what, call me crazy but I think it would be good if North Korea got nuclear weapons. That means other countries will have to start respecting them militarily. Is it any coincidence that any country the West wages war against has no nukes? If North Korea gets nukes, rest assured there would be no war.
Well that's a new opinion. North Korea is an irrational actor who sits at the precipice of an uneasy peace between China and the US. Arming them with nuclear weapons is like giving your child a shotgun because other people have them too.
NK are not taken seriously because although they have the missiles to hit things, the reliability of them and the maintaining costs means that for most analysts they are seen as unable to afford it.
The moment that it becomes clear that they have a real threat they'll be bombed back to the Stone Age. The US tactic now in these situations is Shock n Awe. Essentially they'll flatten an entire countries infrastructure within a 2 or 3 hour range to the point where they have no ability to respond. If the US wanted to and could get China onside the war for Pyongyang would be over in about the time it took someone to read this post.
They SHOULD be put down to. The UN should flatten them if it had some sort of decent military strength but it should least allow China and the US some sort of joint operation to smash the shit out of it. Right now in North Korea there's concentration camps. Like Auschwitz and Dachau. That's happening right this very second to thousands of people in NK and there's little anyone is doing about it.