Sanctions Taking Toll on North Korea Regime, High-level Defector Tells VOA

[TomSea]

Sanctions Taking Toll on North Korea Regime, High-level Defector Tells VOA

WASHINGTON —

Editor's Note: In a two-part series, VOA's Korean Service spoke with senior-level North Korean defector Ri Jong Ho in his first public interview since his defection in late 2014.

A senior North Korean defector told VOA Korean that the current efforts to tighten economic sanctions on the North are effective and could over time destabilize Kim Jong Un’s regime.

“Economic sanctions, if continued, will erode the North Korean regime’s grip on power, create more opportunities for market activities and stir all kinds of corruption and disorder in the country,” said Ri Jong Ho in his first public interview since his defection in late 2014. “That loosening of government control will strike at the very foundation of the [top-down] leader-based system.”

Continued: https://www.voanews.com/a/sanctions-pinching-north-korea-regime-high-level-defector-tells-voa/3918475.html