The fact remains, argument is pointless, there is nothing we can do about it.

Short of a full scale invasion and total occupation we will never be assured we have located and found all the nukes. It's that simple. An air or missile strike to knock out their nuke infrastructure will only force them to play their only card, an attack on Japan or S Korea, (or even China or Russia to try and drag them into a war).

Without active help from S Korea and Japan we simply cannot even consider a meaningful military solution, and since they are the countries who actually are next door to N Korea (not the US which is half a world away) it ain't gonna happan, for logistic and military reasons, not political or diplomatic ones. They don't want to help us fight our battles. Talking tough is just a way to pretend you're tough.

The only "tough" we should be talking is to make it very clear (through secure, diplomatic channels, privately, so no one need lose "face") that if any nuclear weapon EVER goes off against us or one of our allies, N Korea will be flattened, period, no questions asked; whether it is one of theirs or not.

Quiet deterrence works, tough guy strutting does not.

If N Korea was really planning on using a surrogate to attack us with one of their nukes, they wouldn't have gone to such lengths to let us know they had the capability.