“So went the thinking throughout the Bush and Obama administrations. “
The author is an idiot.
The first test was in 2006 and was widely consider a dud. The second test in 2008 was known to be successful.
Any POTUS could have put an end to this nonsense prior to 2008 without a risk of NORK nukes. And that includes GW Bush.
It’s not the nuclear threat, they probably don’t have a deliverable weapon yet.
It’s the thousands of artillery pieces aimed at Seoul that prevent action against North Korea.
Within seconds of the first bomb dropping, Seoul would be bombarded with a devastating barrage.
They were all worried about the artllery north of Seoul. Now they are gonna have to worry about the nukes sent lose upon the world. Welcome to idiocracy.