The problem with Hackworth and your support of his analysis is that North Korea will become a seller of nukes to anybody with enough won to buy them.
Ignoring nuclear proliferation in the hands of whackjobs is not an option. NK can already reach Alaska, Hawaii and perhaps even the west coast. Who knows?
There's a reason for the initial deployment of missile defense in Alaska. It's because NK is a desperate country run by a whackjob.
Bush, Cheney and Rumsfield knew it was only a matter of time before they reached for the plutonium that Clinton and Carter were only too happy to give them.