Are they getting ready to break out and vastly expand their arsenal and stockpile?

After three years of diplomatic deadlock, the Obama administration says it is willing to hold preliminary talks with North Korea to probe its intentions and assess the prospects of ridding the country of nuclear weapons.

Given the Obama administration’s performance with Iran, it’s a distinct possibility that northern Korea’s nuclear weapons program is about to take off.

In the case of Iran, the US has joined with several world powers in negotiating the framework agreement to prevent Teheran from obtaining a nuclear weapon.

North Korea, though, does not seem to be looking to disarm anytime soon.

And neither is Iran looking at nuclear disarmament. There’s a hint there.

And

“We want to meet with the North first without any conditions to determine whether it has real commitment (toward denuclearization),” [RoK’s Special Representative for Korean Peninsula Peace and Security Affairs Hwang Joon-kook] said in Beijing on Thursday.

What was it someone said about doing the same thing over and over and over and expecting different results?

Oh, and here’s northern Korea’s answer:

Pyongyang answered the overture with a fresh show of force—test-firing a new ballistic missile from a submarine.

North Korea claimed Saturday that it successfully test-fired the newly developed ballistic missile. Not long after that announcement, South Korean officials said the North fired three anti-ship cruise missiles into the sea off its east coast.

That’s pretty clear, to those willing to listen.