If we discount dropping napalm on cities during the war? Or timing military drills to coincide with the harvest and planting seasons to pull farmers away from the fields for self-defence?

I can google the sanctions, they seem pretty targeted at the elite

They ban NK from buying oil, industrial equipment, or selling any of their resources. This is the same play we ran between Iraq pt I and II, after destroying their infrastructure and then restricting them from being allowed to buy the parts to repair it on the international market.

Ostensibly the justification is to cause as much suffering as possible so the people overthrow the government and we can replace it with one who will sell out their people's resources and labor.