There are two giant economies that border NK, China and Russia, that do not economically embargo NK. But as is always the case with socialist workers' paradises, it's always the fault of external villains that they have any remaining problems at all. Surely it can't have anything to do with the internal policy of forcibly transferring decision-making power from the people to the political elite in Capital City.
Not really - their government takes all the aid and money, while also punishing defectors (just people escaping to China or SK) by death or imprisonment of their families. Embargoes do little for most of the population.