The world might not want to hear it, but Kim Jong Un might be right.

"There will never be such a thing as our abandonment of the nuclear weapons or denuclearization,” Kim declared last month. "The position of our state as a nuclear nation has become irreversible.”

Decades of pursuing the "denuclearization” of the Korean Peninsula has failed. After North Korea last month declared itself a nuclear weapons state, it’s time for the U.S. and its allies to accept this reality — and learn to live with it. That’s the first step to reducing the risk of accidental confrontation that could lead to all-out nuclear war.