Kim Jong Il surrounded himself with children and celebration.

It was a good place for North Korea to be. He didn't expect to carry out an escalated nuclear program because it would never be a successful defense of his country or countrymen.

USAID Assists North Korea in Denuclearization (click here)

FrontLines: March 2008

Since October 2007, USAID has contracted for the purchase and transportation of 100,000 metric tons of heavy fuel oil to North Korea in support of the Administration’s efforts in the ongoing Six-Party Talks aimed at the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.
The fuel is part of a multinational action-for-action agreement in which 1 million tons of heavy fuel oil, or equivalent equipment and materials, is to be provided to North Korea in exchange for various steps toward complete denuclearization.
The Six Party participants include China, South Korea, North Korea, Japan, Russia, and the United States. The South Korean Government provided an initial delivery of 50,000 metric tons of heavy fuel oil in July 2007. Since then, China, the United States, and Russia have each followed with fuel oil shipments. China and South Korea have also provided equipment and materials to refurbish North Korea’s hydro and thermal power plants.

While the idiots Bush and Cheney spoke poorly of North Korea, the people of the USA know differently and sought to reach out in the only way they could.