They announced that they were ignoring the provisions in 1999. A US Diplomatic Mission confirmed that they were noncompliant in 2002.
This. How many times in history has a communist country not been able to feed their people? I had a company commander in basic training who came from Romania when it was still run by Communists. Her family was one of the wealthiest families in the town they came from, and even they had trouble finding oranges more than once a week.
If I were El Presidente instead of Obama: "Good work North Korea, but I have a better idea. Now take all the money you would have spent on nukes and buy better farming equipment!" Seriously, don't they have some "Juche" or somesuch policy meaning "we stand alone?" That doesn't work for shit. Maybe it really means "we starve alone." Seriously, countries need food all over the world...countries that don't want to oppress their people. So why should we give one crumb to these fuckers? Do we think that in the far future they might say "America really helped us out. Let's give up Communism and let them take us under their wing!" Sorry, cut them off and let our enemies support them. We aren't the only Food Bank in town.
It's a small positive step, but only because they have no money.They have to lay low regardless, so why not get free shit from the US and others and watch the Israel/Iran fireworks form the sidelines. Baby Kim isn't as dumb as he looks.
You're probably right about Fat Kid, although considering how fucking stupid he looks that's not saying a whole lot. Whether this is a signal of long-term change or just another blip