N.Korea was set up by USSR and during the cold war the country was on USSR side,there used to be tension bw us and they shot dead our citizens on our side of the border and the whole area was closed off for years.no one can tell them what to do and one thing people have to give N.Korea the credit,they are very independent in their politics.if they'd listened to China and followed our path of openning up and reform the economy,they would be at least on par with the South,we showed their 2 generation leader around many of our booming cities,shanghai,shenzhen...and tried very hard to impress them and make them realize the good result from those reforms,but they just didnt want it.you can take a horse to water,but you can make it drink.