George,

I completely agree that North Korea could and should adopt the course you outline, or something like it. Whether or not they will is another question altogether. Certainly I don't think it likely that the US or any other outside influence can persuade or compel them to change their economic policy.

It is slightly deceptive, I think, to view North Korea as a communist state. To me it looks more like a dynastic absolute monarchy in the old l'etat, c'est moi mold, dressed up in a thin veneer of communist ideology. I do believe there will come a breaking point, most likely triggered by internal events. This could happen in a number of ways: a dynastic successor could be more open to reform, or could be overturned by other internal parties (most likely the military), or the current leader could be incapacitated or overthrown. I don't know nearly enough about the internal politics to say which of these is most likely. In the meantime, I don't see what we can do but deter, contain, manage, and wait for an opening.

I suspect that when an opening comes it would be most effectively exploited by action from the South or from China: there's just too much historical baggage for the US or Japan to play a leading role.