Checking North Korea

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Alright, let's all take a deep breath. It would appear, based on early reports, that North Korea has successfully tested a 10-20 kiloton atomic weapon. Since it happened sometime last evening (EST), I'd imagine that the alternative media has already developed their Memorial Day marching orders to begin yet another war.
 
I'm going to go out on a limb here, but believe it or not, North Korea, and its enabler China, are in a worse position after yesterday's test.
 
For some time we've made a relatively good faith effort to bring North Korea back into the fold. The reality is that those efforts were based less on the ideal way to go forward, as they were an unfortunate recognition that there wasn't much we could do about their nuclear program. Military action on the Korean peninsula, at least at this point, serves absolutely, positively, no purpose. Risking the lives of millions of people (Seoul), as well as tens of thousands of our soldiers to disarm a country that hasn't demonstrated the intent to use these weapons offensively, is simply madness.
 
While I realize there is a very real proliferation issue at stake as well, we haven't seen any evidence of Pyongyang selling technology to anyone but states like Iran -- who falls into the same category of willingness to actually use a nuclear weapon. As for non-state actors, I -- and I'd imagine many others -- worry more about Pakistan passing along nuclear materials to al Qaeda than I do North Korea.
 
Rather than the binary choice between talks and military action, I think it's time that we considered another course -- and this time it should directly target China, who has the most leverage over its very dependent neighbor, as well as the most to lose. Unless the Chinese get their act together and put real pressure on North Korea, we should make it very clear that we will advise our allies in South Korea, Japan, and possibly other countries in the region, to move forward with their very advanced (and mature) nuclear programs for the sole purpose of deterring their unpredictable neighbor. Might that policy get the attention of the Chinese? I'd be willing to bet that it will.
 
The fact is that China is the key to defusing this predictament. If they persist however in allowing North Korea to play this silly game, I suggest we show them that their actions will have very serious security consequences.