Here is a good read on the assistance we have given N. Korea.
http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/row/RS21834.pdf
N. Korea does this whenever they feel they are losing popularity with their people. Then they get the aid, mostly from us. However most of the aid goes to feeding their military, not the population. Someone needs to oversee the dispersing of the aid over there.
China won't do anything and does not want us to do anything because they don't want all the N. Korean refugees heading north into their country causing economic disaster for them. Russia just likes seeing anybody f-ing with us.
So, we're back to giving a s-load of aid to them and not knowing where it's going. Pointless circle that will continue sucking us dry.