The bloggers have been pretty much silent on North Korea's confession. Now the WaPo explains it from N. K.'s point of view:

North Korea believes the United States has repeatedly broken agreements, harbors ideas of attacking it and inexplicably refuses to even talk to a government that desperately wants better ties.

Meanwhile, at the NYTimes, Howard French says,

The late 1980's opened an era of disasters, from the disappearance of the Soviet bloc, whose countries were North Korea's main economic partners, to a series of catastrophic famines brought on by crop failures, droughts and flooding.

*cough Central Planning cough*

Against this backdrop, the United States, the North's great historical enemy, has emerged as the world's sole superpower, and one increasingly willing to move against nations it sees as threats. In another nightmare come true, South Korea, meanwhile, has become vastly richer.

Faced with the urgent need to fend off economic collapse, Mr. Kim's confession of a uranium-based nuclear weapons program appears to many experts to have been a pragmatic, if ultimately misguided response to an insurmountable obstacle: a Bush Administration that had little interest in engagement.

In other words, your guess is as good as mine.