North Korea's economy is not very reliant on trade, so could someone please explain to me how this economic strangulation is supposed to work
I don't see how a collapse would take place even if 100% of trade was cut off from them... Anyone care to explain how this collapse would happen?
First, the purpose of sanction is to stop North Korea from further developing their nuclear capabilities, not collapsing the regime.
The current sanctions are full of holes. I am sure you can do an internet search of North Korea + Sanctions + not working and find bunch of articles. From what I remember how North Korea avoid sanctions or earn foreign currency are
- illegal activities: selling drugs, counterfeiting goods and US dollar
- exporting labor: North Koreans working in foreign countries, where NK government keeps majority of their rights warnings
- fake or third party company to launder money: something like calling a company SKorea LLD to make the customer believe it's a South Korean company
- China: they ignore/control economic activities with North Korea
- North Korean expat community in Japan: this might be outdated, but this communtiybused to send signifcant amount of money to NK.
So these activities described above and some are just enough to keep the regime going and develop their nuclear capabilities. Think about itwhy isn't NK spending money to upgrade their tanks and airplanes, beside China and Russia won't selling weapons to them? It's not cost effetive, spend a billion to develop nuclear capabilities vs buy 50 MIG 29. Buying 50 MIG 29 will upgrade their Air Force, but won't shift the air power balance in their favor.
So stopping activities mentioned above will "strangle" North Korean economy. But since China don't want North Korea to collapse, they won't do it.
Suppose China changes their mind and apply full international sanctions against North Korea. North Korea has to prioritize their spending- stop developing nuclear weapons or downgrade Kim and his entourage's life style.