North Korea could simply abandon their nuclear weapons program, stop antagonising their neighbours and then the sanctions would be lifted.

Also having actually been to the country the issue isn't sanctions. It's the lack of foreign investment and restrictions on business. Many China businesses for example would love to have broader access to the North Korean market not just for exports but as a source of cheap labour. But this is not happening because North Korea is fearful of their population being 'indoctrinated'.

> North Korea could simply abandon their nuclear weapons program, stop antagonising their neighbours and then the sanctions would be lifted.

Stop resisting and I'll stop choking you.

More like stop trying to attack your neighbours and I'll stop choking you.

And nobody in this world including the US wants North Korea to continue to be a relic from the 1970s. Prosperity lifts us all.

Then lift the sanctions. How are sanctions going to protect anyone from nuclear attacks anyway, if NK already has an arsenal?

Flood them with Yankee dollars. Fidel Castro would have been ousted immediately. Kim Jong Il would have been murdered.

North Korea actually already makes millions (at least) of passable US currency. North Korea isn't impoverished because of lack of resources, but rather because the Kim regime would rather spend those resources on themselves.

They did it for a 3 year period from 2002-2005.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Korea%E2%80%93United_S....

Yes, that is how subduing a belligerent person works.

A person that wouldn't be belligerent in the first place if you didn't make it so?

Kim Jong Un isn't belligerent. The north koreans have a different playbook for foreign policy than you might be used to but its a playbook nonetheless. For their people the program is akin to something like the Apollo program in terms of national pride. Its also a dead man's switch effectively. The ruling family obviously wants to maintain their life of idyllic luxury and nuclear weapons and belligerent public addresses are a good way to make people second guess just steamrolling you over. In effect they are just playing a hand thats already dealt to continue their positioning.

Or you know they could become democratic and embrace market reforms so their people don't suffer so much oppression and poverty, but then the ruling class would have to give up its power. Then they could unite with SK. Nobody in the West is team rolling a democratic country.

That would require losing the reigns of power. Plus who is to say if the populace doesn't turn on them and make a Mussolini out of him?

Without reservation, I can.