> This should be your reminder that economic sanctions really does nothing but starve ordinary people to death while doing nothing to the ruling regime and, in many cases, strengthens support for it as those enacting the sanctions are (with merit) seen as the enemy.

This is predicated on the idea that the problems NK citizens face are due to lack of total resources, not misallocation of resources by the ruling government.

I have a hard time believing that the same regime which continues to pour resources into military spending and lavish living for its higher-ups as its population starves would allocate further resources toward anything else. If there was a sensible limit on inequality it would have been reached long ago.