Search All Site Content

Total Index: 6300 publications.

Subscribe to our Mailing List!

Sign up for our mailing list to keep up to date on all the latest developments.

KEI Spotlight

KEI board member Bradley Babson comments on North Korea sanctions

February 10, 2020

Bradley Babson, a former World Bank adviser and an advisory council member of the Korea Economic Institute of America, noted that sanctions are really constraining the ability of the North Korean state to function in the state-directed economy, which has forced Pyongyang to give ground to the private sector.  

Babson observes that "[U.N. sanctions restricting] oil imports have really negatively affected things like fertilizer production and industries that are very dependent on oil… [as a result,] the senior leadership has come to understand that without trade and investment, you can't [exist] all on your own."

Babson adds "there is a real dilemma for the government and for public policy about how [to] integrate the concept of self-reliance in the modern and the way the economy and society have developed since the famine [of 1990s] and the breakdown of the old model."

Read the full article here