The time for bargaining of food and aid is already long
past. There are independent reports of canabilism being practiced
in North Korea.
http://www.agonist.org/archives/003388.html
This report was in 2003, during world boom years. Now is 2009
and everyone everywhere on this planet is suffering. How more worse
will it be in N.Korea who had successive bad harvests, poor
management of resources today?
China had been a major exporter of food to N.Korea. But even
China themselves are suffering today, and exports would have been
dwindled. N.Korea had not been taught to 'fish', but were given
'fish'. Now with 'fish' supply out or low, the country is dire
straits.
Combined with sanctions from China and Russia, which will have
to take place because both nations will not allow Japan or any
other asian states to aquire nukes to challenge their arms
superiority, they will have to support the international community
to deny N.Korea nukes or the capability to build more. A nuke arms
race is the last thing China and Russia wants in their sphere of
influence.
Nutcase Kim is aware of the issues, more aware than anyone else.
His back is against the wall, and has nothing. When a man has
nothing more to lose, he can lose nothing more, thus his finger
will toy with the button more than he ever had in the
past.
This is no longer an excercise to gain aid, which nutcase kim
knows it is non-existant in our crisis world, nor will believe he
will get any. Desperate, destruction aka gottermerang Hitler style
is the way he will go now.
Better his people and soon to be hungry soldiers die fighting
his opponents than turning their anger against him and challenge
his diminishing power and rule.
With war, it would mean lesser mouths to feed when peace is
declared, and he is still in control of nuke bombs when he emerges
out from his nuke proof shelter.