The South Koreans have come a long way from the "Sunshine Policy" days of the previous government, when unconditional aid was lavished on Pyongyang. Here's what a member of the current administration in Seoul has to say:
North Korea has bought weapons worth $65m (£37m) over the past five years despite severe food shortages, a South Korean lawmaker said.
Kwon Young-Se said the North had spent about $13m a year during South Korea's previous administration.
He was arguing against the South's so-called 'Sunshine' policy of engagement with the North.
Previous administrations sent food aid to the North, which critics say should have been more closely monitored.
Mr Kwon, of South Korea's ruling Grand National Party, said his information came from intelligence sources, although this was not confirmed. [...]
Critics of aid disbursements have argued that the food sent to Pyongyang was used to feed members of North Korea's military elite.
North Korea has one of the largest armies in the world, and about a quarter of its national income is believed to be spent on the military.
About 1.7 million people make up the armed forces in a country with a population of 23 million. By contrast, South Korea's army comprises 680,000 troops.
But many North Koreans are going hungry.
In July the UN's World Food Programme warned that hunger in North Korea is at its worst since the famine years of the 1990s, with five to six million people in immediate need out of a population of 23 million.
When he came to office earlier this year, South Korean President Lee Myung-bak promised to stop unconditional aid to the North, which responded by cutting off government-level contact.
And here are John Bolton and Nicholas Eberstadt in the WSJ on why the world shouldn't fear the collapse of North Korea:
The economic implications of absorbing the North Korean population have seemed terrifying to South Korean policy makers ever since the Berlin Wall came down. But the plain fact is that the economic chasm between North and South will continue to widen as long as the North Korean regime survives. The longer unification is postponed, the greater the immediate challenges of reunification are likely to be.
True enough, no doubt, but the re-appearance of the Dear Leader suggests that collapse isn't imminent. And Bolton and Eberstadt's idea of a combined US / South Korea force marching in, securing the nuclear facilities, assuring China that there's no need for alarm, and setting about providing humanitarian aid to the stricken population - "not only feasible, but potentially quite manageable" - seems a little, well, optimistic. Or perhaps "deranged" might be the better description.
Unfortunately there are no better ideas around.
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