Women Mobilizing to End the War, Korea Peace Now, released a report^[1] on the impact sanctions have on the common citizens of the Democratic People’s Republic of North Korea. The report reveals that civilians—often women and children—suffer more than the targeted regime.

“As one of the few American physicians who has worked to deliver humanitarian aid and improve health care in North Korea, I have seen how sanctions have restricted the access to the most basic medicines and medical equipment in the isolated country,” said Kee Park, a lecturer at Harvard Medical School, the director of the DPRK Program at the Korean American Medical Association, and one of seven authors of the report.^[2] “This has made treating infectious diseases, chronic diseases, and injuries much more difficult.”

The report points out problems with current sanctions policy that may be “contrary to international law, in particular humanitarian and human rights norms.”^[3]