The Impact of UN Sanctions on North Korea's Luxury Goods Imports

Abstract

This paper aims to analyze the economic impacts of UN sanctions on North Korea’s banned luxury goods imports. The analysis is based on applying Difference-in-Differences Methods to the gravity model. The results show that North Korea’s luxury goods import patterns reflect the aforesaid model. The result of Difference-in-Differences shows that UN Resolutions 1695 and 1718 were ineffective in decreasing North Korea’s luxury goods imports. This paper also found that four countries, primarily China, accounted for 91.4% of North Korea’s luxury goods imports in 2007, and the share of North Korea’s luxury goods accounted for about 5.3% of North Korea’s overall imports.

Keywords: North Korea (DPRK), Economic Sanctions, Nuclear, United Nations

JEL Classification: F51, P2, D74