North Korea’s Red Cross was unable to conduct most of its planned activities in the first half of 2023 due to a lack of funding and inability to transfer cash, the country’s Red Cross Society has revealed in a new report.

In the 2023 mid-year report published Monday, North Korea’s local Red Cross chapter provided a rare admission of the negative effects of the country’s self-inflicted pandemic border controls, which took effect in Jan. 2020 and have only been slightly eased since last July.

“During the reporting period, sufficient funds for the implementation of the International Federation of Red Cross