[Lady Heron]

2. North Korea is responding to an oil embargo by the west.

No oil embargo. We are no longer supplying them with free oil. We are not keeping them from buying their own oil. BIG DIFFERENCE.

[lafayette76]

You are correct. An oil company was getting enough American taxpayer money to provide "foreign aid" (i.e. extortion money) to the tune of 500,000 metric tons of fuel oil per year, which apparently was twice what their civilian economy could use. But given the state of their economy, the cut-off of oil is effectively an embargo, and I'm sure that's how they (the mentally ill North Korean regime) view things.