![]() Since the 1970s, North Korea has systematically smuggled alcohol, tobacco, drugs and other contraband through its diplomatic networks abroad. Sanctions-evading actions are not rare events, but are institutionalised within North Korea’s economy. The issue of evasion illustrates why the impact of sanctions is so hard to evaluate. The alternative to sanctions is not an open, liberal and free-trading North Korea, but likely a slightly more well-off version of its current state. Sanctions interplay with domestic governance and economic systems in ways that are complex and often hard to fully evaluate. Though North Korea has ways to evade sanctions, this does not mean sanctions have no impact. The ‘spy satellite’ launch would be one of around 30 missiles tested in 2023. The country has made impressive advances in missile technology and is evidently capable of acquiring the necessary technology despite sanctions. It is true that sanctions have not reached the stated political goal of inducing North Korea to give up its nuclear weapons. This situation raises questions about whether sanctions on North Korea have failed. But the country still circumvents sanctions regularly through complex smuggling operations at which it is by now very adept. North Korea is under one of the harshest multilateral sanctions regimes of any country in the world. At the time of writing, the world is waiting for the launch of a new North Korean military spy satellite that Supreme Leader Kim Jong-un announced on 19 April 2023. ![]() On the surface, sanctions seem to have had little impact on North Korea’s behaviour. ![]() The complicated truth about sanctions on North Korea 5 July 2023Īuthor: Benjamin Katzeff Silberstein, Swedish Institute for Foreign Affairs Economics, Politics and Public Policy in East Asia and the Pacific
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