North Korea, Apparel Production Networks and UN Sanctions: Resilience through Informality

• Published in: 한국경제지리학회지, 23(4) pp. 373 - 394
• Main Authors: 이종운, Kevin Gray
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: 한국경제지리학회 01.12.2020
• Subjects: 지리학
• ISSN: 1226-8968; 2713-9115
• DOI: 10.23841/egsk.2020.223.4.373

The strengthening of multilateral international sanctions against North Korea has raised questions as to how effective they are in exerting pressure on the country’s economy. In this paper, we address this question by examining their impact on the country’s integration into regional and global apparel production networks. North Korea has in the past decade become an increasingly competitive exporter of apparel on the basis of consignment-based processing arrangements. Official trade data shows a sharp drop in North Korean exports of clothing since the sectoral ban in 2017. There is evidence to suggest, however, that exports have continued on a more informal and clandestine basis. North Korea’s integration into apparel production networks has also taken the form of the dispatch of workers to factories in China’s northeastern border regions. Yet there is evidence that the recent sanctions imposed on such practices has similarly led to illicit practices such as working on visitors’ visas, often with the help of Chinese enterprises and local government. The resilience of North Korea’s integration into apparel production networks follows a capitalist logic and is result of the highly profitable nature of apparel production for all actors concerned and a correspondingly strong desire to evade sanctions. As such, the analysis contributes to the literature on sanctions that suggests that the measures may contribute to emergence of growing informal and illicit practices and to the role of the clandestine economy. KCI Citation Count: 0