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SANCTIONSUPDATED 24 OCT 2026

The most sanctioned country on earth

Nine UN resolutions ban almost everything North Korea sells. It gets around them with ship-to-ship transfers, crypto theft - and a friend on the Security Council.

The rulesThe cheating
The rules

What is banned

9
UN sanctions resolutions
From the first nuclear test in 2006 to 2017. Source
All
Coal, iron, seafood, textiles
North Korea's main exports are banned from sale abroad since 2017. Source
500,000
Barrels of fuel a year
The cap on refined petroleum imports. Source
Workers
Ordered home
Countries were told to send North Korean workers back within 24 months of 2017. Source
The cheating

How it gets around them

Ship-to-ship
Transfers at sea
Tankers switch off their trackers and swap cargo mid-ocean. Source
1.5m
Barrels of oil smuggled in 2023
Three times the legal cap, said the UN panel. Source
$1.5bn
Stolen in one crypto hack
Bybit, 2025 - hacking pays for what sanctions block. More
2024
UN watchdog shut down
Russia vetoed the UN Panel of Experts that tracked sanctions-busting. Source

More inside North Korea

Who runs it, the military, energy, daily life and more.

All topics
Sources

Where this comes from

Figures are public estimates and may be dated - North Korea publishes almost no statistics.