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The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) has been subject to sanctions nearly continuously since its foundation in 1948. First, it was sanctioned as a part of the Soviet bloc, a situation that was amplified by the Korean War. Later, North Korea suffered from de facto sanctions as a result of its refusal to side with either of the two contenders in the Sino-Soviet struggle for leadership in the socialist camp. Since 1993, and in particular since its first nuclear test in 2006, the country has been sanctioned both by the United Nations and by individual countries such as the United States because of its nuclear weapons program. This essay will focus on events in the last decade and address the following questions: What have been the domestic political and economic impacts of the current sanctions on North Korea? What has the Kim regime done to evade or mitigate their impact? Can sanctions be effective and compelling?
The Domestic Political and Economic Impacts of the Current Sanctions on North Korea
When considering the effectiveness of sanctions against North Korea, it is important to understand the long history of such measures. The most influential study on the topic argues that sanctions have the greatest chance to achieve their goals if they are imposed quickly and decisively.1 In the North Korean case, however, they have been imposed slowly and gradually. This is exemplified by a brief look at the sanctions passed by the UN Security Council after the first nuclear test, spanning a total of eight resolutions over eleven years: 1718 (20 06), 1874 (20 0 9), 2087 and 2094 (2013), 2270 and 2321 (2016), and 2371 and 2375 (2017).2
In addition to limitations on the travel of certain individuals, we can identify three target areas of the sanctions imposed since 2006: (1) the import of key military hardware and technology, such as aluminum tubes, with the aim of directly curtailing the nuclear weapons program, (2) the import of luxury goods, such as French cognac, based on the questionable assumption that the North Korean leader needs to hand out expensive presents to his followers to ensure their loyalty, and (3) the export of key products of the domestic economy, such as anthracite coal, seafood, and textiles, as...