Since Obama’s Executive Order in 2016, all nonprofit organizations working in the DPRK have been required to obtain special licenses to provide humanitarian assistance to the people of North Korea. Although basic assistance in the form of food, shelter, agriculture, and medicine were covered under a general license, any additional medical supplies, medical assistance, or equipment containing metal required both UN and U.S. exemptions.

IGNIS Community first acquired our UN and U.S. licenses in October 2017. It took us approximately 11 months to navigate the most critical of these licenses, known as the OFAC license, from the U.S. Treasury Department. Subsequent BIS Commerce licenses for shipping goods into North Korea and a UN exemption for the metal found in medical supplies were then applied for. All three licenses initially took a total of almost three years to obtain as IGNIS Community finally received the first UN exemption in September 2019.

Because of the difficulty of obtaining such licenses, many humanitarian organizations have ceased providing aid to North Korea. This has even included large organizations such as Handicap International. In the midst of global sanctions and a world-wide pandemic, almost all humanitarian assistance to the DPRK has stopped leaving the North Korean population extremely vulnerable.

Thankfully, both the UN and the U.S. have recognized the need to improve the processing speed of these licenses and have expedited the application process and processing time. IGNIS Community recently received renewals of both our UN and U.S. licenses. UN exemption from the UN 1718 Committee currently takes an average of about two weeks, and IGNIS’s recent OFAC license renewal from the US Treasury Department took IGNIS approximately two and a half months. This is a clear significant improvement since 2017.

However, the fact remains that 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 nonprofit organizations on the ground in North Korea. These banking issues are the number one reason why many nonprofit organizations are no longer able to operate in the DPRK.

In addition, U.S. citizens are banned from traveling into the DPRK. Special travel permits to U.S. NGO workers have been denied at times by the U.S. State Department, although the State Department states that they are preparing multiple-entry Special Validation Passports for humanitarian workers. Plus, because of the coronavirus outbreak, all current Special Validation Passport applications for DPRK-related humanitarian purposes are currently being automatically denied.

Much progress still needs to be done to improve humanitarian assistance to the most vulnerable in North Korea. Women, children, and individuals with disabilities should not be the target of global sanctions imposed upon North Korea, but unfortunately these are often the populations that are suffering the most. In particular, pregnant women and young children under the age of five are disproportionately impacted.

In addition to lifting the Geographic Travel Restriction (GTR) to North Korea and improving banking channels for humanitarian organizations, a completely new mindset needs to pervasively permeate U.S.’s understanding and perception of North Korea.

The fact is that IGNIS Community is only one out of very few U.S.-based organizations receiving exemptions and licenses to work inside the DPRK. Considering the number of organizations working in North Korea prior to 2016, the number of NGOs has drastically reduced from about a dozen organizations working in country to only one other US-based organization besides IGNIS receiving exemption. This is not because of a lack of desire on the part of the humanitarian organizations but primarily due to the current difficult political climate.

Instead of targeting the elite, sanctions are punishing the least of the least within North Korean society. Sanctions are causing further disintegration in the lives of ordinary people, harming the most vulnerable, and deteriorating relations between the U.S. and North Korea.

It is time to take a different approach. It is time to shift the paradigm and change policies. Unnecessary red tape must be removed to normalize humanitarian engagement with North Korea.