This is not about warfare, it's about economics and international trade leverage.
You're all skipping main steps here and calling it a shoot-out when it's still just a stick-up. N. Korea has a goal and it's not to waste an expensive nuclear warhead on killing innocent civilians, ending in their own demise. Don't be stupid.
I can garauntee North Korea, no matter how loony they may seem will not blatantly just start firing off nukes because they're fuckin' pissed. This is about gaining a desired place in the international trade community and at the WTO table, and who gets the best seats at that table? The big fuck-off nations with nuclear capabilities.
North Korea is short on many resources, including energy. They need resources to fuel their little isolated communist compound, but no one wants to support what they're doing (understandable). Thus trade options for North Korea are few and they often get shafted.
Like any other country, gaining nuclear capabilities will give them much trade leverage, if you haven't noticed they have used the threat (just the threat) of developing nukes to gain trade leverage throughout the last 12 years.
Chronology of nuclear weapons development in North Korea:
1993: North Korea says it has quit the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty amid suspicions that it is developing nuclear weapons. It later reverses that decision.
1994: North Korea and U.S. sign an agreement. North Korea pledges to freeze and eventually dismantle its nuclear weapons program in exchange for international aid to build two power-producing nuclear reactors.
Aug. 31, 1998: North Korea fires a multistage over Japan and into the Pacific Ocean, proving it can strike any part of Japan's territory.
May 25-28, 1999: Former Defense Secretary William Perry visits North Korea and delivers a U.S. disarmament proposal.
Sept. 13: North Korea pledges to freeze long-range missile tests.
Sept. 17: U.S. President Bill Clinton eases economic sanctions against North Korea.
December: A U.S.-led consortium signs a US$4.6 billion contract for two safer, Western-developed light-water nuclear reactors in North Korea.
July 2000: North Korea again threatens to restart its nuclear program if Washington doesn't compensate for the loss of electricity caused by delays in building nuclear power plants.
June 2001: North Korea warns it will reconsider its moratorium on missile tests if the Bush administration doesn't resume contacts aimed at normalizing relations.
July: State Department reports North Korea is going ahead with development of its long-range missile. A Bush administration official says North Korea conducts an engine test of the Taepodong-1 missile.
December: President Bush warns Iraq and North Korea that they would be "held accountable" if they developed weapons of mass destruction "that will be used to terrorize nations."
Jan. 29, 2002: Bush labels North Korea, Iran and Iraq an "axis of evil" in his State of the Union address. "By seeking weapons of mass destruction, these regimes pose a grave and growing danger," he says.
Oct. 4: A visiting U.S. delegation says North Korean officials revealed that the country has a second covert nuclear weapons program in violation of the 1994 agreement -- a program using enriched uranium. North Korea later denies this.
Oct. 16: U.S. officials say they have discovered evidence of a nuclear weapons program in North Korea.
Oct. 26: Bush, Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi and South Korean President Kim Dae-jung meet at an Asian-Pacific regional summit in Mexico and agree to seek a peaceful end to the North's nuclear problem.
Nov. 11: The United States, Japan and South Korea halt oil supplies to North Korea promised under the 1994 deal.
Dec. 12: North Korea reactivates nuclear facilities at Yongbyon that were frozen under the 1994 deal with the United States.
Dec. 13: North Korea asks the U.N. nuclear watchdog to remove monitoring seals and cameras from its nuclear facilities.
Dec. 14: The U.N. International Atomic Energy Agency urges North Korea to retract its decision to reactivate its nuclear facilities and abide by its obligations under the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty.
Dec. 21: North Korea removes monitoring seals and cameras from its nuclear facilities
Jan. 10, 2003: North Korea withdraws from the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty.
Jan. 28: South Korean envoy Lim Dong-won meets North Korea's number two leader Kim Yong Nam. Lim says North Korean leader Kim Jong Il has received the letter from President Kim Dae-jung that suggests Pyongyang should reverse its withdrawal from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
Feb. 3: The U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld signs a "prepare to deploy" order that will send 24 bombers to the Pacific region.
Feb 4: Pyongyang describes the U.S. move as an attempt "to crush us to death."
Feb. 5: North Korea's official news agency says the nation has reactivated its nuclear power facilities.
Feb. 12: The 35-member IAEA board of governors declares North Korea in breach of atomic safeguards and refers the case to the U.N. Security Council.
Feb. 18: The (North) Korean People's Army threatens it will abandon the 1953 Korean War armistice if the United States continues its military buildup in the region.
Feb. 24: North Korea test fires a land-to-ship missile into the sea between the Korean Peninsula and Japan.
Feb. 26: The United States says North Korea has reactivated its five-megawatt nuclear reactor at Yongbyon.
March 10: North Korea test fires another surface-to-vessel anti-ship missile into the Sea of Japan, or East Sea as it is known in South Korea.
March 29: Pyongyang says it will resist all international demands to allow nuclear inspections.
April 5: North Korea says it won't recognize any ruling made by the U.N. Security Council.
April 12: In a dramatic shift, North Korea backtracks on its calls for direct 'face-to- face' talks with Washington, saying it will consider any format for dialogue if the United States is prepared to make a "bold switchover."
June 2: Group of Eight world leaders meeting in France accuses North Korea of undermining non-proliferation agreements.
June 9: North Korea lifts its war of words with the United States to a new level, saying it may now need nuclear weapons to combat what it describes as a hostile threat from Washington.
July 12: A senior U.S. official says North Korea has begun reprocessing spent nuclear fuel rods, suggesting the communist country intends to produce nuclear weapons.
July 16: China ups the pressure on North Korea to join mulitlateral talks to end the nuclear standoff during a visit to Pyongyang by a special envoy from Beijing. "In-depth" talks take place.
July 26: A Japanese newspaper report, citing North Korean and Japanese sources, says North Korea is prepared to conduct a nuclear test unless the U.S. responds positively to its proposals to end the nuclear row.
August 1: North Korea announces it will take part in six-nation talks on the crisis. No date or venue for the meet is set.
August 2: Pyongyang warns the United States not to discuss its suspected nuclear weapons program at the U.N. Such a move would be "a grave criminal act" that was "little short of a prelude to war," Pyongyang says.
August 12: Washington announces that six-way talks aimed at ending the crisis will take place in Beijing on August 27. The U.S., North Korea, South Korea, China, Japan and Russia will take part.
August 18: North Korea repeats a demand that Washington sign a non-aggression pact with North Korea, and says it could not dismantle its nuclear deterrent force if the United States did not abandon its "hostile policy" toward Pyongyang.
http://www.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/asiapcf/east/08/20/nkorea.timeline.nuclear/
As you can see North Korea demands that sanctions be lifted and "hostile policy" towards N. Korea be abandoned. Now that nuclear weapons are in the mix, it's a big deal because they've handed themselves an equal set of cards at the international trade table. And the U.S. doesn't approve because the U.S. wants North Korea to fail economically.
It's an economic tool and it's nothing new. N. Korea isn't stupid, they know exactly what they're doing; gaining power and a foothold in the international trade community. As much as we would like to see their little communist project fail, once they get nukes, everyone has to start listening.
Silly Americans, it's not all bang-bang shoot-em-up... don't let your president fool you, this doesn't mean war.