Meanwhile, North Korea's leadership is aware of its ever-increasing reliance on China, and the Juche ideology may catalyze diversification -- as in Myanmar.

CNN: What North Korea could learn from Myanmar

Economic and political pressures do not work well on North Korea's leadership because its central ideology of Juche, translated as "self-reliance, " produces a very negative reaction to outside pressure.

CNN: What North Korea could learn from Myanmar

That will be used as a precedent by the North to seek more unconditional aid, says Hwang Jang Yop, who was the architect of North Korea's ideology of juche (self-sufficiency) before he defected to the South last year.

ECONOMIST: The Koreas