No doubt that the "red button" should not be in hands of mad of too nervous people (like that hamster). The Chinese can do a lot indeed, but I am not sure they can stop him entirely. Perhaps only slow down that programme.
So, what to do? This question was re-iterated several times in this thread, and it's obvious that the main problem is potential massive casulties of civil population of South Korea in case shooting of any kind finally starts. Recall that even back in early 90's Clinton and his defense minister were considering a strike to destroy the NK reactor, but the analysis ended with such a conclusion. Nothing really changed since that...
I wonder if the US are really going for a demonstration that they can intercept the NK missile during one of the upcoming tests? THAAD would not help here, but AeGIS cruisers can potentially work it out. Would be interesting to see how/whether AeGIS and SM-3 work against such targets.