North Korea’s getting worse. That’s the short version. Deserting North Korean soldiers are telling stories about how even the army is going hungry and that officers are either stockpiling food or planning how to flee to China. Anti-government graffiti is starting to decorate statues of the Dear Leader. Russia just started maneuvers on the North Korean border to test their preparation in the event of a mass wave of North Korean refugees coming their way. Rather than opening up, the guys at the top of North Korea are digging in deeper. My guess is if they hit bedrock, they’ll blast it so the can continue digging deeper still.
My guess is the United States would, sooner or later, intervene. However the U.S. and the U.N. would probably, for the cost of helping, make North Korea comply with the U.S. and U.N. rules on Nuclear power. In other words U.S. and U.N. will help North Korea with their resource problems in return for negotiations in nuclear arms.