No theres a stark difference. Deep state is in the business of nation building which equates to never ending government contracts which funds the industrial war complex. Im not for deep state nation building. North Koreas leadership is an enemy of America. Not calling and identifying them as the enemy is akin to liberals calling terrorism freedom fighting.
Covert espionage is a thing of the past and people become Squamish at its mere mention because some think it implies overthrowing opponents. NK isnt a government headed by a leader. Its a rogue nation state headed by a tin pot dictator who is a sworn enemy of the US.
Folks dont believe in espionage anymore because I dont think the intelligence community has produced anything resembling intelligence for quite sometime. Weve been on the vicious cycle of nation building.
Hell yes Im for overthrowing a sworn enemy of a foreign government. Doing so doesnt mean full scale attack. A successful espionage campaign is one that produces its intended result without being able to identify a suspect. Who wants to nation build after fatboy is assassinated? Let the NK people decide how they wish to proceed and pick up the chips where they fall. Appeasement has never worked in history and it wont work here either
Stand on their heads with crippling sanctions that decimate their lands. Engage in full scale intelligence operations and espionage (physical and technological) that targets their attempts at nuclear supremacy. And support any and all actions (secretly) that would stage a coup or result in assassinations that target their upper echelon leaders up to and including their supreme leader.
I just glad you're not in charge of anything.