December 05, 2023
Interviews

Sanctions increase regional inequality, cross-border trade – report

Adapting to int'l sanctions, N.Korean leadership redistributes resources to urban centers, according to study

As sanctions against North Korea have increased, authorities have responded by redistributing wealth and economic activity to urban centers, a recent study suggests.

For the paper, Yong Suk Lee, assistant professor of economics at Williams College in Massachusets, used night-time satellite images from 1992 to 2010 to study the effects of sanctions on the geographical distribution of economic activity in North Korea.