Could this be an alternative, North Korea

Instead of running in the arms of America trying to build up an military alliance of smaller countries with the aim to beat the threat to the national security the US poses.
This means to build up a strong well equipped standing army ready to be deployed in every country of the alliance to make another Irak impossible.

This means to go for nuclear weapons which must be able to reach the US.
To such a threat President Bush uttered to Pakistan, 'We'll bomb you back to stone age!' you can answer then, 'You 'll be there too afterwards'.

That is a way to get national security against and independence from the US.

The road to dependency is laid out with sweeties by those who want it, the road to freedom with barbwire.
But freedom is sweet and dependency is, once you are there, surrounded by barbwire and feels like this.