I'm not trying to equivocate I'm trying to point out the a-historicism of throwing our hands in the air and saying "well I guess there's just no reasoning with them!"
The reason our diplomatic options are so poor now is because we have constantly failed to deliver our end of the bargain when it comes to nonproliferation in North Korea, see the Agreed Framework. Saying that they're "just crazy bullies" has always been a stupid over simplification that gets us nowhere closer to not blowing each other up.
> and the US seems to be honest about the contempt with which it views the North Korean regime
And DPRK is not? What are you even talking about? The DPRK literally uses inflammatory rhetoric about the USA all the time.
