[oldvirginian]

Just a thought,and probably wrong, but maybe China had a heart to heart with Rocket Man and told him they couldn’t afford to subsidize Norklandia anymore.
The Chinese economy is an extremely shaky house of cards and recent events aren’t helping.
The natural disasters causing rice and vegetable shortages, the diseases wiping out the pork and poultry industries and finally the CCP virus causing them to lock down huge areas of the economy.
They simply can’t afford a state like North Korea that they have to completely subsidise.

That or fat man DID nearly die and has had some sort of change of heart/personality.

I’m betting on the China angle myself.

[null and void]

The Chinese economy is an extremely shaky house of cards and recent events aren’t helping.
The natural disasters causing rice and vegetable shortages, the diseases wiping out the pork and poultry industries and finally the CCP virus causing them to lock down huge areas of the economy.

And there's still the upcoming catastrophic failure of the Three Gorges Dam to contend with...