What good are sanctions from a country across a distant ocean

I don't know probably the 800 global military bases around the world, multiple client states and a sanction regime pushed through the UN amounting to an effective medieval style siege of the country.

global hegemon.

I don't think you know what this means.

I’m sure those NK Migs took only photos and left only memories on their flyovers during the war. Definitely no bombs

Definitely equivalent to the global military superpower waging a campaign of extermination that destroyed all of the farmland, and structures killing between 1 in 5 and 1 in 4 of the population and leaving the rest living in caves. You are very smart.