The Human Costs of Sanctions on North Korea

This past Wednesday a team of independent experts launched a report on “The Human Costs and Gendered Impact of Sanctions on North Korea.” The research project was funded by Korea Peace Now!, and as one among several authors, I had the incredible honor of participating in presenting humanitarian case studies based upon Ignis Community’s experiences in North Korea.

Over the years, it has become evident that “hard-line” sanctions drastically affect the most vulnerable in any country. This was true in Iraq and is true today for North Korea and Iran. Sanctions are intended to pressure the government towards denuclearization, but what we are discovering is that instead of hurting the elite, sanctions are preventing humanitarian aid from entering the country and are causing deaths, particularly among women and children. It is estimated that in the year of 2018, approximately up to 4,000 North Koreans could have died as a result of sanctions.

Unfortunately, politics are taking precedence over the value of human life. The current extent of sanctions on North Korea is so severe that even humanitarian organizations have difficulty shipping medical equipment and food into the nation. This is not only because of what is explicitly stated in the sanctions but also because U.S. sanctions have highly discouraged banks from working with non-profit organizations on the ground in North Korea. Even travel permits to U.S. NGO workers have been denied at times by the U.S. State Department.

On October 30, 2019, Kee Park, Henri Feron, and I presented a summary of the comprehensive report. As a neurosurgeon with experience of over 20 trips to North Korea, Kee Park shared how sanctions beginning in 2017 have negatively impacted surgical care inside the DPRK. On his most recent trip inside, he even had to operate with a dull, rusty scalpel, and opposite to previous experience, he had no X-ray machine to aid in the midst of spinal surgery because the X-ray machine’s parts needed for repair were lacking due to sanctions! Heron Feron, as an expert in international law, was the backbone of the report. According to Feron, sanctions that violate basic human rights and impede humanitarian assistance are not in accordance with international law. Although not an expert in sanctions, my role was to represent Ignis Community’s struggles in providing humanitarian aid to the DPRK in the midst of the current political climate. While showing pictures from the children affected in North Korea, I explained the actual situation on the ground in the DPRK:

Henri Feron, Myself, and Kee Park in front of the United Nations in New York City (from left to right)

“I am one of the few Americans who has lived and worked for over ten years in North Korea. For over eleven years, my husband and I have been working in North Korea through our nonprofit, Ignis Community. We help get medical treatment for children with developmental disabilities- a demographic with few resources in North Korea.

Take, for example, Blessing. Blessing is from the Northeast Region of North Korea and has quadriplegic cerebral palsy. Like most disabled children in North Korea, Blessing was kept secretly at home, hidden. Even the family’s closest friends and co-workers did not know that Blessing existed. At the age of four, she could not chew her food or voluntarily move her muscles. Blessing’s grandmother kept her alive by chewing her food for her and then spooning it into her mouth and helping her swallow. It took Blessing and her family several days to travel from their home province to the capital city of Pyongyang, where Ignis is developing the Spine Rehabilitation Center (PYSRC). As the first training hospital for pediatric rehabilitation, the center will provide medical and therapeutic services for children with cerebral palsy, autism, and other developmental disabilities. Here, Blessing was able to learn how to voluntarily operate her mouth muscles, roll-over, and even sit-up for the first time.

However, due to the limited number of patients we can treat until the center is complete, Blessing returned to her home province to wait for her next round of treatment. When we went to the NE Region to invite her back for treatment, her father met us and explained, “I’m sorry. Blessing is no longer with us. She has passed on.” Although having a developmental disability is typically not a life-threatening condition in a developed nation, in developing nations, like North Korea, where life is even difficult for able-bodied people, the fact is that children with disabilities often do not survive.

Prior to the our program, no official treatment existed for children like Blessing. Now the North Korean Ministry of Public Health is working to establish Pediatric Rehabilitation Centers in all ten of the country’s pediatric provincial hospitals. And doctors are also being trained in treatment methodologies at the Pyongyang Medical School Hospital. As we are currently treating a limited number of patients in one small room of the hospital, a Spine Rehabilitation Center is being developed that has the potential of treating 450 outpatients and 30 in-patients daily.

However, with the increase in sanctions imposed on North Korea, that success is at risk, and children like Blessing are having a harder time getting access to the treatment they so desperately need. In December of 2017, the UN Security Council passed Resolution 2397, which bans the import of metal, and, as a result, restricted medical equipment such as needles, rehabilitation equipment, and lab diagnostics from entering the country. Although it is possible to get an exemption for humanitarian-related items, the process can be subject to burdensome delays. Even American humanitarian workers, themselves, have been at times denied Special Validation Passports to enter the DPRK.

The United Nations and the United States’ government both state that they have no intention of hurting the common people of North Korea or hindering humanitarian assistance to the most-needy in the DPRK. However, the reality of providing humanitarian aid to North Korea is quite the opposite. The current political climate challenges even large NGOs to reconsider their involvement in the DPRK. It takes years to navigate and request all the necessary governmental permits and licenses to provide life-saving humanitarian assistance to the most vulnerable in North Korea.

In our case, Ignis Community began applying for the appropriate licenses in 2016. To continue our life-saving work for children with disabilities, our organization was required to obtain a license from the U.S. Treasury Department, a license from the Department of Commerce, and an exemption from the UN Sanctions Committee.

We finally obtained all necessary licenses for the development of the treatment center in September this year-over three years after we began the process.

Our case is not unique; providing humanitarian aid to the DPRK requires years of applying for permits and licenses not only from the United States but from the United Nations. Legal expertise is also necessary to navigate the technical requirements to operate in North Korea, decreasing and delaying the delivery of humanitarian assistance. In the meantime, the common people of North Korea, who need help the most, are the ones who are suffering.

Humanitarian engagement with any country, regardless of politics, should be fueled by the desire to save lives. The value of human life should always supersede the state of diplomatic relations with any country. Humanitarian assistance should not be subject to political whims but should be separated from other sanctions imposed upon North Korea. Therefore, we are calling for an immediate review and modification of the current global sanctions on the DPRK. Otherwise we are turning our backs on innocent children, like Blessing, just as we have a chance to bring them the help that they need.”

Presenting Summaries of the Report at the UN Church Center

Already it appears as though the report is making a difference. A member from the Panel of Experts in the United Nations has requested letters listing the facts and evidence of negative impacts from sanctions that are impeding humanitarian aid. Other parties from the U.S. government have also expressed concern about the humanitarian situation in North Korea including a potential bill to help improve humanitarian access for US NGO workers and expedite aid shipments to North Korea.

It is the hope of both the campaign and the authors of this report that this comprehensive assessment will catalyze changes to protect and save the lives innocent millions who are voiceless within the nation of North Korea. And, in turn, by rebuilding trust through humanitarian work, we will be one step closer towards achieving peace on the Korean Peninsula.