Personally, I think the key here is with Seoul strengthening its ties with China. I do get the feeling that China are aware steps will have to be taken over North Korea's beligerance on the international stage, but they are very wary about letting the West take a hand. We talk a lot about our 'Global Society', but we aren't nearly as close to such a thing as we'd like to think, Koreas neighbours, China, Japan etc, should really be the ones to deal with the problem about of the two ends of Korea, but the problem is that it's like a big soap opera, all the countries involved aren't talking to each other because of grievances over wars, occupations etc, but at the end of the day, it's they who should be looking to sort the problem out.
Unfortunately, if Korea continue to impose on other countries and upset stability in the area, it may be needed for the West to be involved as well, but the ideal solution would be a local one, one word from China would certainly be enough to pull N.Korea up short, but it would also unbalance the leadership, which China are concerned about doing, it's bad enough having nutters living next door, a complete breakdown of the system would be worse, and many western powers would want to send in Policting actions, something China does not want that under any circumstances.
It is possible to defuse the problem, even now, but China doesn't need to simply be on board, it needs to be actively involved and forming the focus of external efforts to restore some kind of sanity to the situation. They are aware of how important 'face' is to leadership in this part of the world, it's not like the West, where leaders can be publically satirised or even disgraced and still maintain some level of influence, and people like the North Korean leadership would certainly adopt a 'scorched Earth' mentality if they felt they had been so.
