If there was ever any doubt, there’s none now: Kim Jong Un is a brutal, nuclear-armed fact of life, and there’s little anyone can do about it.

Friday marks 10 years since Kim took the reins of power in North Korea. Some thought the Swiss-educated, twenty-something basketball fanatic could reform the country; others that his regime would soon collapse and the DPRK as we knew it would be over.

A look at the last decade shows that quite the opposite is taking place. With his firm grip on Pyongyang politics and his long-range nuclear