Why Is The Bush Administration Bluffing On North Korean Nukes?

If you want to understand the depths of the unseriousness of the Bush government, consider that the U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Chris Hill uttered these words just four days ago:

"We are not going to live with a nuclear North Korea, we are not going to accept it," U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Chris Hill said. He warned Pyongyang that "it can have a future or it can have these weapons. It cannot have both."

Ok, so now they have proven to us that they have nuclear weapons. The question we need to put to the Bush government is, does that mean we intend for the North Korean government to end? If the answer is not yes, and if the answer is not delivered damned soon, then George Bush ought to fire Chris Hill, because clearly Chris Hill is a loose cannon.

So far, the reaction of the Bush Administration is to push for sanctions:

UNITED NATIONS - The United States proposed stringent U.N. sanctions Monday against North Korea after it said it had performed a nuclear test, including a trade ban on military and luxury items, the power to inspect all cargo entering or leaving the country, and freezing assets connected with its weapons programs.

Yeah, that'll show Kim Jong Il, won't it? For God's sake, what does this say about our policy on Iranian nukes?