How would we know? It turns out that the United Nations Development Program office in Pyongyang was a virtual “ATM” for the regime, transferring, “without ever providing receipts”:

…up to $150 million in hard foreign currency to the Kim Jong Il government at a time when the United States was trying to keep North Korea from receiving hard currency as part of its sanctions against the Kim regime.

North Korea was able to launder money via Banco Delta (Macao’s own inquiry clearing the bank of any wrong doing is rather pathetic), and only recently has Japan finally cut off all remittances and trade with North Korea.

This of course doesn’t even take into account the bulk of it; special projects like the Kaeso’ng industrial complex, the Kumgangsan tourist venture, and who knows what other forms of official and non-official non-food aid flowing from the South into the North. And then there is China, keeping the oil lifeline alive, and see ever increasing cross-border trade.

So when someone tells you the policy of strangulation with the goal of collapsing the regime failed, ask them how the hell they would know.