How do you figure that America is subsidizing them? We've tried invading them, ignoring them, and buying them off, and none of them worked very well. The key p

How do you figure that America is subsidizing them? We've tried invading them, ignoring them, and buying them off, and none of them worked very well. The key point is that this is really a proxy war between China and the US. North Korea exists only as a proxy of China - they cannot be defeated in war until China allows it, they will continue to exist as they do as long as China allows it, and the regime will collapse about 10 minutes after China stops supporting them. The current state of affairs exists because China likes having a thorn in our side and very much does not like having a close US ally on their border. The only plausible end that I can see is them doing something so provocative that China gets fed up with them and afraid that they'll be drawn into a shooting war, and forces the Kim dynasty out and somebody who is reasonable and favors Chinese-style reforms in.