About the Author
Ifang Bremer
Ifang Bremer is a Seoul Correspondent at NK News. He has worked on investigations for The Guardian and The Observer and previously wrote features on Korea for Dutch newspaper NRC.
The U.S. slapped new sanctions on North Korea’s border control authorities on Friday for their efforts to stop would-be defectors from escaping, part of a series of designations to mark International Human Rights Day.
The unilateral measures, which also target the DPRK’s animation industry, “aim to disrupt” North Korea’s “role in restricting freedom of movement, mistreating asylum seekers, and exploiting laborers to generate revenue for the state,” according to a press statement by U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken.