Let me start on that side of the picture. Between 2012 and 2014, together with the U.K. Foreign and Commonwealth Office, I've led the U.K. bilateral engagement on security issues with North Korea. The U.K. and, in addition, Germany and Sweden, as you mentioned, maintain diplomatic relations with North Korea, with active embassies there, and in the U.K.'s case, a cross-accredited defence attaché, so there are indeed EU nations, other than just the three I mentioned, that have a presence in Pyongyang and whose ability to do business is undoubtedly being affected by the sanctions regime. There's no question about that.
It is difficult to get necessary goods and funds flowing in. That applies, I would say, more so to international organizations doing work in North Korea. Organizations that are co-housing with foreign embassies in Pyongyang for their housing are having difficulty paying their rent, for example, as a consequence of sanctions, because so many banks don't want to touch anything that looks like it's going towards something connected to North Korea.
There is undoubtedly an impact that's being had on consular relations and on diplomatic relations. Is it possible to make that work in an age of sanctions? Yes. Will it be difficult? Yes, but in my view, I think it would be a real shame if countries such as Germany, Sweden, and the U.K. were to feel that they no longer had the ability to operate as they wanted to in North Korea. Again, in my view, there needs to be an open door and a table for North Korea to come back to if sanctions are to have any relevance. Part of that, I think, involves continuing diplomatic channels where that's possible.
On the broader effect on the North Korean people, it is extremely challenging to assess that. It's not something that I've looked at in great detail. First, it's hard to get a sense of the spread of the humanitarian situation around the country and, in addition, North Korea has an incentive for trying to make it seem as if they are absolutely resilient to sanctions, so the information flow is truly very poor in pretty much any way that you can construe that term. The honest answer to you on that front is that I simply don't know.