North Korea has no territorial ambitions. It is hemmed in by great powers or protectorates of great powers. Does anyone think the US would tolerate another invasion of South Korea? Or that China and Russia would support it? Therefore it's nuclear weapons program is either defensive or "suicide by cop", sending one off and waiting for retalliation. It hasn't done that despite having had from 6 to 12 weapons for a while. Their decision to test a weapon is the next logical step if one is going to have a nuclear weapons program.

Apparently they withdrew from the 6 party talks after the international uproar over their medium-range missile test.
I'm not sure why North Korea doesn't have a right to those missiles. Everyone else does. And the US has been busily threatening them for a long, long time. Their only real protection from the US is the threat of serious damage to US interests, such as South Korea and Japan.

I think it's easy to forget that North Korea borders China and Russia, who have much more of an interest in what happens there than the US. (Sometimes the US thinks the ROW is it's backyard.) It seems reasonable to me that the North Koreans aren't going to do anything which has the strong disapproval of either of those countries.

The only use of nuclear weapons in the last 60+ years has been as a deterence. No nation which possesses them has been attacked, they are the equivalent of the 6-shooter of the American West. Everyone loves their country, and no one wants to see their countrymen wiped out. I don't believe North Korea is run by madmen, certainly no one as demented as John Bolton.

So, we've got the reality. North Korea has had those weapons for quite a while, years, and hasn't done anything crazy with them. The premise that they will send off a few in order to destroy their own country seems, at best, weak.

Arf