North Korea’s shelling today of a South Korean island has reminded the world again of the perennial problem of what to do about the nuclear-armed state. This comes just days after we hear that North Korea has shown off an advanced uranium-enrichment facility, a reminder, too, of how dangerously resourceful this regime can be even as its people face another winter of food and electricity shortages.

Finally, it is a reminder that Kim Jong-Il and his brand of “diplomacy” is still very much alive and with us, and may well survive Kim for years to come. American and South Korean governments and envoys and strategies may change, but North Korean ploys and rhetoric have remained remarkably consistent for years: Provoke, recriminate, negotiate for aid and concessions, provoke, rinse, repeat. We should expect no different this time, which means the time for more negotiation is coming again soon.

And of course negotiations will be difficult. There is one other thing North Korea has been remarkably consistent about for decades: Its dogged pursuit of a nuclear weapons program. Have we come to the point where we must reckon with a nuclear-armed North Korea as a permanent condition, and give up the dream of a nuclear-free North Korea? Some might argue we long ago passed that point; South Korea’s former spy chief holds out hope that’s not the case.

Either way, when incidents like today’s shelling happen, it may be all well and good to wag fingers, as some have on Twitter, and suggest North Korea needs to be taught a lesson, perhaps by the U.S. But we have to reckon with North Korea’s long history of “escalation dominance,” which its nuclear program has made even more formidable.

We may be seeing, with Kim’s succession in the works, a limited resurgence this year of North Korea’s badder older self of the 1970’s and 1980’s, with the sinking of the South Korean ship Cheonan as well. But the U.S. and North Korea’s neighbors have been contending with this provocative state for decades of “armistice,” and today’s events have not changed the basic calculus: Kim’s brand of diplomacy poses a daunting challenge, and it is still with us.