North Korea does not pose a serious threat to the United States
I agree.
Their desperate race to build a nuclear capable ICBM is all about DEFENSE.
Between Economic Hitmen, CIA jackals and the brute force of the American Military Industrial Complex, it is clear to the leader of any county in the world that does not want to play ball with America by America's rules that it must have a big deterrent.
America is THE major modern imperial power in the world today. Why else would we have a military budget the size of the next dozen largest, combined? Why else would we have 800 military bases, scattered around the world? Why else would we assert our 'right' to be 'world cop' if not to subvert, subjugate or subsume every other nation on Earth?
The average American citizen is blissfully unaware of what's being done in their name to innocents all over the world on a daily basis. Since when did we have the right to meddle in the affairs of other nations that pose no threat to us?
Kim Jung Il went to school in Switzerland. He's well aware of America's foreign policy tactics.
Viewed in this context, his obsession with building a nuclear capability makes a great deal of sense. It's all about the Defense. He knows very well that using one in a first strike would invite instant and utterly destructive retaliation.