My recollection is different. 

Clinton would have invaded over the building of the nuclear power reactor except the President Carter found out that they were willing to negotiate to end their nuclear power program. 

We broke off that agreement when we discovered that they were negotiating with Pakistan for plans for a nuclear bomb. 

We probably should have renegotiated the deal to include nuclear weapons. Instead we refuse to negotiate and insisted that the North Koreans negotiate with multiple parties -that is the Chinese, the Japanese, and the South Koreans.

Our allies and the Chinese say that multi-party talks are useless unless the US participates in them. We and not they are the principal threats to North Korea's existence.