Sanctions against the people don't seem to work. They simply unite the country.

North Koreans would be very aware of the "axis of evil" comments and know what happens to those countries without nukes. The North Korean Army is a response to hostility and a way to suck up the younger people onto the side of the government and keep them employed. North Korea has nowhere to go, nothing to invade. It is not offensive. China won't let it, Russia won't let it, and the US won't let it. The occasional saber-rattling seems like the hissing of a cornered cat rather than anything serious.

The Korean War occurred only after the US declared South Korea outside the US's area of interest. Given that, it was a reasonable gamble. As was Kuwait for the Iraqis under the same circumstances, by the way.

The notion that the country's leadership is irrational is simply an excuse for the US to meddle with it. As with Cuba, with many Western markets blocked and only poor countries with which to trade it is chronically economically depressed.

It's hard to tell which came first, the sense of isolation and the world being against it, or the world being against it and it feeling isolated.

But I don't think watching people starve is a way to influence a leadership or country which already thrives on feeling outcast. Just as we would if we were in the same position.