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"North officially going their own way is to show that the political savvy of Ned Stark is contagious to the whole region. The North practically already does whatever they want as the Neck is unbreachable by Southern armies. Thus, by simply doing nothing they could have all the benefits of 7K membership (common market, royal fleet support against ironborn, play ing kingmaker, become king, and get subsidies) while passive aggresively ignoring whatever edict they don't like by sealing off Moat Cailin.\n \n\n\n\tAll the problems you mention are valid, but more pressing is that the North and its massive fleetless coastline is now Ironborn playground. They can now plunder foreign North and sell to 6K where they have common market access as a member kingdom. Looks like Yara U turning on iron lslands sovereignty was a crafty move.\n "
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