TWO WEEKS AFTER shocking the Bush administration by admitting it was running a secret nuclear arms development programme in violation of the 1994 accord with the United States, Pyongyang may be feeling the ground beneath it shaking.
Not only has its nuclear blackmail failed to cower Washington, the North's defiance is triggering a series of international responses that could deepen its isolation from the world community, resulting in dwindling amounts of aid to the impoverished nation.
Internationally, US President George W. Bush is taking up the North Korean threat with Chinese President Jiang Zemin, Russian President Vladimir Putin, Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi and South Korean President Kim Dae-jung at the Asia Pacific Economic Co-operation summit in Mexico this week.
Talks with Mr Jiang and Mr Putin will be crucial as they constitute Pyongyang's only substantial friends in the world with leverage to influence its course. North Korea shares borders with both of these giants, and depends on China for food and fuel, and on Russia for balancing support against the US.
On the peninsula itself, the revelation that Pyongyang has been secretly enriching uranium for making a nuclear bomb erodes the base of Mr Kim's reconciliation drive, ahead of the December presidential election in which his favourite candidate is foundering at the opinion polls.
The North has seriously misread Washington's position in the debate. At the October 4 meeting with the visiting US Assistant Secretary of State, James Kelly, North Korea's First Vice-Foreign Minister Kang Sok-ju was evidently proposing a deal when he said Pyongyang would give up its nuclear ambitions for a package of US concessions, including lifting economic sanctions and opening diplomatic relations.