North Korea ready for "Holy War"

[Ubermensch]

The US singlehandedly turned the tide for World War 2 with it's economic might.

Single handedly? I think not, sure it provided some indispensible aid to the British and Russians, but the war could have been won in Europe without American intervention. Even without America it still probably would have been over by 1946 at the latest.

If there were to be World War 3, I wouldn't know who would win, as China is now the current economic super power.

Holy shit, have you actually looked China's economy and its relation with the US economy? These two countries make all their money off each other, why would they ever go to war? Furthermore, America is still, and will be the world's pre-eminent economic superpower for about the next 30 years, that is if China keeps growing at its current rate, and the US continues to grow so very very slowly. Also America would win, hands down.

With that considered, who do you think is propping up North Korea? China.

Without a doubt, but that doesn't mean they're happy about it, it's just the lesser of two evils for them.

Knocking them away from North Korea enough to let it die most likely would be ridiculously difficult. Also, the North Korea leaders have been dealing with a near mutinous populace for a long time. They dealt with it through indoctrination, starvation, mass murder and careful application of terror. I bet that even if everything to North Korea was blocked, including food, they'd still manage to find a way to keep their populace in check.

Nobody is inerested in destroying North Korea. South Korea doesn't want a flood of Commies streaming across the border lookng for a free handout, China doesn't want squillions of refugees, America doesn't want to deal with more world-police action at the moment and the North Korean leadership doesn't want to lose the vice-like grip on power. As for the mutinous population, this is the country where the people starved and in rare cases resorted to cannibalism rather than take back control of their country.

What happens to people who stand up to those with guns? Nothing good.

Might makes right.

So no, I don't think that pure economic punishments would work, proof being current North Korea. They'd rather starve swathes of their population and blame it on the same foreigners who have queasy stomaches and sooner or later, fold and give food aid.
It's bloody convenient.

It's the standard North Korean playbook, misbehave until they give us what we want. Now that they have nukes to throw into the mix, their bargaining chips got that much stronger.