NY Times Report Says that Sanctions is Challenging the Loyal of Kim Regime Elite

Here is why the Kim regime is pushing so hard to have sanctions eased for little to nothing in return:

For years, the North Korean state has produced coal, iron ore, seafood and textiles for export, mostly to its ally China. Mr. Kim and top officials have used this export revenue, as well as the earnings of North Korean workers abroad, to finance nuclear weapons, large projects like Samjiyon and their own privileged lifestyles.

Previous international sanctions aimed to prevent North Korea from acquiring weapons parts and technology. But the newer ones, imposed in the past few years, ban those lucrative exports, depriving Mr. Kim’s regime of its main source of income.
As a result, party officials, soldiers and police officers who make a living off the state are feeling the effects more sharply than ordinary people who have already learned to fend for themselves through hundreds of unofficial markets, according to defectors and economists.
“Hardest hit by sanctions are those 20 to 30 percent of the population who stay on the government’s socialist payroll and rations,” said Jiro Ishimaru, a Japanese journalist who monitors North Korea with the help of correspondents there. “Enterprising North Koreans can make as much in a day selling vegetables in the market as many military officers can make a month in official wages.”

New York Times

You can read more at the link, but Kim Jong-un has stated that negotiations have until the end of the year to make a deal.

I think the North Koreans believe that with the US Presidential election happening next year that President Trump is not going to want a return to missile and nuclear tests in 2020 before the election. The Kim regime is likely betting that the Trump administration signs up for their “pretend denuclearization” deal that eases sanctions, gives the Trump administration a so called foreign policy “win”, and the North Koreans keep a low profile before the election.

This approach has worked with past US administrations, but clearly this is not a typical US presidential administration. It will be interesting to see if the old North Korean playbook works on this administration as well.