Can someone explain North Korea to me?

[OneTime]

Quick overview (as I understand it)...

Russia and the US were allies in the second world war. At the end, when it was obvious who was going to win, there was a bit of in-fighting as to who was going to define the future of the world. This led to some "interesting" military decisions that weren't 100% targeted at fighting the Germans/Japanese.

This is what the conspiracy nuts in Japan believe was the reason behind the US showing off their new "nuclear" weapons at Hiroshima given that Japan had "obviously lost" already. Note that Japan didn't surrender and an invasion would probably have been even more costly in term of lives, of course.

Roughly speaking Russia went with Communism and US went with Capitalism. And it was *really* important which side you were on (not entirely sure why myself).

This escalated into the Korean War, where communist forces from the north - funded by Commies - tried to take over Korea. The US and others fought to liberate South Korea as a capitalist country. Then lots of money was pumped into South Korea, making it home to Samsung and one of the most advanced countries in the area. For completely altruistic reasons, not just to be a PR poster child for Capitalism.

Other places have similar stories (Iran, Syria, Vietnam) but North Korea stands out as a screwed up nut job. Basically it ended up with a group of military people who really enjoy the high-life and don't give a damn about the suffering of the North Korean people. Plus some little kid call Kim-Jung-Un who doesn't really do anything himself.

FWIW - China believes that NK will collapse by itself if you trade with them. Ironically this is what I think about Cuba (really that tiny island and the US can't just buy it out?). South Korea just want to be unified into a single country peacefully.

I'm not a fan of just sitting back and watching, but Iraq/ISIS shows that intervention isn't as easy as "I have a better army" (although Afghanistan's Taliban and Libya's Ghedaffi are arguably better off gone). Plus think about it: you may hate Trump or Hillary, but would you like the rest of the world to come and "liberate the US"?

It's weird that so much of modern international politics has roots in USSR vs USA. That's just why people should just be excellent to each other...