What's to be done about North Korea now that Kim Jong Il appears to have acquired nukes? There's not a lot the U.S. can do, at least not directly. My hope is that China will finally decide to put some pressure on it's "ally" to convince them to de-nuclearize. There's certainly incentive for China to do so. A nuclear North Korea virtually guarantees a nuclear Japan (which China clearly wishes to avoid), could possibly result in a nuclear South Korea (which the North must worry about), and might even result in a nuclear Taiwan (once everyone else in the region has nukes, how could Taiwan feel secure?).
This unattractive scenario might actually convince China to crack down on Kim's regime - something they've avoided for fear of the flood of refugees that would result from a regime collapse in their basket-case neighbor.
Sadly, Kim seems to have gotten his wish: he's now the center of attention, rather than being "ronery."