The U.S. Treasury Department has frozen funds of the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), NK News has learned, imperiling groups working to improve North Korean human rights. The freeze is the latest in a series of financial and political shifts which organizations say could decimate advocacy and aid work related to North Korea.

NED, a nonprofit that distributes grants from an annual congressional appropriation through the State Department’s budget, serves as a critical source of funding for many NGOs working on North Korean human rights.

The freeze comes after Elon Musk, tasked by President Donald Trump with cutting government spending