It seems like Kim Il-Sung went the way of self-reliance as a nation, but as I understand it, it was far from communism. Surely the whole point of N Korea being soviet backed and S Korea being US backed was the war of ideologies, especially during the Cold War.
Why didn't the Soviet Empire use the opportunity at the end of WWII to set up a proxy soviet empire in Korea?
I don't understand - do you think they didn't? The DPRK is very similar to Stalinist Communism. In fact, other than the incorporation of East Asian thought to the concept, it is almost purely Stalinist. Everything in North Korea from propoganda, to management of resources, to handling of dissidents, to Gulags, to war with America, to cult of personality, to military tactics is based on Stalin's USSR.
So I'll need to understand what you mean by your question if you aren't asking for an explanation of why they are Stalinist. Do you mean to ask why the USSR did not micromanage it like a puppet state a la Afghanistan or East Germany?