North Korea has rapidly advanced its tactics for evading sanctions in the face of global pressure, and in the process become a model for other sanctioned states.

The DPRK’s sanctions resilience lies less in any single evasion tactic than in how multiple methods now work together to keep revenue and payments outside the country. Because the regime does not depend on economic performance at home to maintain control, it can tolerate severe domestic hardship while acquiring goods, technology and services directly overseas.

This has produced a hybrid evasion system in which traditional tradecraft — front