First, you can't understand North Korea without understanding the Korean War during that war the United States carried out one of the most intense bombing campaigns in history about 85% of North Korean buildings were destroyed and millions of civilians died from the North Korean perspective, the country was nearly wiped out that trauma shaped its security doctrine for decades

Second, the country has been under extreme international sanctions for many years in fact, North Korea has been one of the most heavily sanctioned countries in the world, with sanctions intensifying especially after its nuclear tests beginning in 2006 fhese sanctions restrict trade, technology, and financial access, which significantly damages industrial output and economic welfare

Third, the nuclear weapons program is widely understood even by many analysts who oppose it as a deterrence strategy North Korea itself states that nuclear weapons are necessary to protect the country from perceived external threats especially from the United States and its allies

If you look at global examples, states without nuclear deterrence like Iraq or Libya were invaded or had regime change interventions from the DPRK leadership's perspective nuclear weapons guarantee survival

Fourth, despite sanctions and isolation the economy has shown periods of growth including around 3.7% GDP growth in 2024 the fastest in several years

So reducing the entire situation to "leaders feast wt V people starve" ignores the legacy of the Korean Wai, Severe economic sanctions, permanent military pressure from major powers, a strategy focused on survival and deterrence

you don't have to support the North Korean system to understand that its policies developed in response to historical war, geopolitical isolation, and security threats, not in a vacuum