Anonny Mouse asks:

what sleazeball national leader WITHOUT missiles would not buy hisself some so he can sit at the "adults' table"?

My personal guess is that the most promising potential customers for the North Korean short range missiles are not thinking about buying diplomatic credibility. They'd probably just want to shoot them at "something," although if "something" gets lucky they might just use them for tactical credibility.

Using them for "credibility" purposes poses the problem that to be credible, the buyers would have to reveal what they have, which of course would make it clear where they came from. North Korea quite likely would take a dim view of being "fingered" in any obvious way as a participant.

Of course they might have a perfectly legitimate customer in mind and cows may all give chocolate milk on Tuesdays for the next few weeks.

John