Economic sanctions towards North Korea

doi:10.1136/bmj.b4069

Published 9 October 2009, doi:10.1136/bmj.b4069
Cite this as: BMJ 2009;339:b4069

Editorials

Economic sanctions towards North Korea

A violation of the right to health and a call to action

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

On 12 June 2009, the United Nations Security Council approvedits strictest economic sanctions to date against North Koreain response to a series of provocative acts, including the detonationof a nuclear device.¹ The United States is also consideringexpanding sanctions and has appointed a high level task forceto coordinate military, political, and financial strategiesagainst North Korea. However, economic sanctions are being consideredwith virtually no public discussion of their potential effectson the North Korean people. Notably, even the health communityhas been silent.

In contrast, during the lead up to the Iraq war, health professionalscontributed invaluable insights to public discourse regardingthe effects of economic sanctions on health.² ³ Prominent healthassociations published position papers and issued statementsopposing their use.² ⁴ In fact, economic sanctions have beenshown to violate the fundamental right to health.² ⁵ Furthermore,they do not achieve political change—60 years of US . . . [Full text of this article]

Sanghyuk S Shin, fellow¹, Ricky Y Choi, clinical instructor ², Thomas E Novotny, professor and codirector³

¹ Korea Policy Institute, 3465 West 8th Street, Los Angeles, CA 90005, USA, ² Department of Pediatrics, University of California, San Francisco, 505 Parnassus Avenue, San Francisco, CA 94143, USA, ³ San Diego State University, Hardy Tower 119, 5500 Campanile Drive, HH 136B, San Diego, CA 92182-4162, USA

sshin@rohan.sdsu.edu