I don’t know. NK really has nothing to lose here. The general populace is starving and anti-Kim Jong Il movements have actually had enough balls to post signs. Information from the outside world is beginning to trickle through degree by agonizing degree.
KJI is not the most mentally stable world leader out there either, although he is gaining a reputation for shrewdness.
NK truly is a riddle, and I’m not at all sure we’re going to enjoy the snappy answer.
That’s what happens when you use your scientists as missle pilots.
Cite?
Well, I’d say it very nicely, with a few arigato gozaymashitas thrown in! 
Here’s an article about how cell phone usage has been increasing in NK despite the ban. The article was printed in 2005, but it made the news in Korean language newspapers before the English language ones.
Here’s a story (Third one down) about demonstrations and anti-Jong Il slogans appearing in NK. Once again, I’ve read the original Korean articles, and this blogging isn’t an exaggeration.
Oh, NK is still the most repressive regime in the world, make no mistake, but I don’t think Kim Jong Il can hold out forever.
How exactly should we feel about that? Aprez moi, le deluge!
LOL, no doubt! But then again, when it comes to North Korea, all bets are off. When Churchill called Russia “a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma” it was because North Korea hadn’t been formed yet.
Short answer is that your guess is as good as mine.
Do you think that George W. Bush, Hu Jintao, Wen Jiabao, Roh Moo-hyun, and Han Myeong-sook could all agree on the appropriate restaurant that serves good Kim Chee (with barbecue sauce)?
How are you going to take him out if you can’t even agree on a restaurant?
Leaving aside the political shrewdness, we also, as far as I know, don’t have the technology to do this. What we have is a system that is aimed at shooting down ICBMs in the midcourse stage…and given that it was only 50-50 at destroying warheads in highly-scripted tests, I think we’d be in for a similar embarrassment as NK had with their missile launch if we actually tried to use it to shoot something down.
The Aegis ship-based missile system seems fairly capable–certainly more so than the ground-based version that I think is the system you’re referring to. 4 out of 5 successful tests isn’t abysmal (of course, we must consider that the 1/5 corresponds to hundreds of thousands of fatalities). However, the Wiki entry notes that the Aegis missile is effective against short and medium range missiles–no mention of long range missiles.
At any rate, I’m not a major proponent of missile defense. If someone can show me that the technological applications of such a program extend beyond its stated purpose, I might be more supportive. Even at a high rate of efficacy, such a system’s usefulness is not immediately apparent to me.
If you use the Reagan doctrine you wait 10 years for them to perfect a working model and THEN you shoot it down. Thus causing them to start another gazillion dollar missile program. Keeps them busy perfecting old technology.
The launch of a single long range Taepodong-2 missile was deliberately done on the 4th of July as a big “up yours” to the United States. Kinda emasculating for Kim Jong Il since he couldn’t get it up. Even more so since the US put a shuttle into orbit on the same day.
The success rate goes up appreciably when you use a nuclear warhead.
Talk about a straight line.
Really, how could we “take out” NK? Nuking Pyongyang is unacceptable for a dozen obvious reasons, and we can’t spare the ground troops for an invasion – too many of our forces are tied down in Iraq and Afthanistan. (A fact of which Kim Jong Il and Ahmedinejad are both, doubtless, very strongly aware.) Even if we could spare the troops, the South Koreans wouldn’t want a war, because Kim is prepared to flatten Seoul with conventional long-range artillery in the first hour of the war. Both sides lose.
What’s that leave us?
Can someone else take them out?
I’ve seen photos of these guys, and there ain’t a one of them I’d want to date!
Emphasis mine (quote from nameless’s post):
I say we engage in a pro-active media campaign to mock the North Koreans’ sexual prowess. Their males will be so embarassed, they’ll run for cover, leaving NK pretty much without an army.
[shrug] So we strike back with moose cavalry and kayak flotillas! 
Well since Democracy and rule of law are inheirently superior to Kims personality cult, that’s a good enough reason to not allow him to have weapons capability to attack the US and it’s allies in the region.
You are obviously joking, because such an assertion is promptly ridiculous since you’ve completely ignored the prowess of the South Korean military, and their ability even without US help, to completely destroy the North Korean military. Not to mention that the North Korean military is in such a dilapidated state (due to lack of spare parts) that it relies on drug smuggling and counterfeiting to finance itself.
http://www.g2mil.com/korea.htm
And for some lighthearted fun
See post #34. Defeat NK they can. Save their own country they can’t. Both sides lose.