That someone in the administration recognizes the absurdity of engaging in Ground Hog Day deals with North Korea (and is publicly commenting about it) is somewhat encouraging. Robert Gates, U.S. Secretary of Defense, recently had this to say about North Korea:

“We will not stand idly by as North Korea builds the capability to wreak destruction on any target in Asia — or on us,” Gates said, according to the Associated Press. He did not call North Korea’s nuclear program a direct threat to the United States but said it was a “harbinger of a dark future.”
[. . .]
“They create a crisis, and the rest of us pay the price to return to the status quo ante,” he said. “As the expression goes in the U.S., I’m tired of buying the same horse twice.”

“There are other ways perhaps to get the North Koreans to change their approach,” Gates said. “I think this notion that we buy our way back to the status quo ante is an approach that I personally at least think we ought to think very hard about.” (emphasis added)

For more on this and North Korea’s threat of nuclear war, see OneFreeKorea.