"The North Korean nuclear-weapons program continues to be extremely dangerous."

The NK weapons program represents a risk, but it's base scaremongering to describe it as extremely dangerous. The weapons the North Koreans are believed to have are primitive and of low destructive power. Regardless, the principle of assured destruction applies to NK as it does to any other entity with a nuclear weapon. If you attack another country with one, you will be utterly destroyed by the resultant retaliation. Nuclear weapons are a deterrent to some other country attacking you. They are of little strategic value as a first strike offensive weapon.

The rest of the editorial strikes the right note. Building reliable nuclear weapons; miniaturizing them to fit in rockets; and developing reliable ICBM's to deliver them is an extremely difficult and expensive undertaking. NK must be watched of course, but it does not represent a serious threat.