North Korea could collapse within a year due to US sanctions, a defector and former Pyongyang official has said, according to a report by The Independent on Tuesday. 

Ri Jong-ho, who ran an international network of North Korean businesses which funnelled money into the hermit kingdom, said the country “desperately wants relations with the US”. 

“The sanctions that the White House has imposed on North Korea are of a historic level,” Ri told an Asia Society event in New York. 

“Never before has the country faced such tough sanctions. I don’t know if North Korea will survive a year with these sanctions. People will die,” he said. 

The former official also said North Korea and China were currently at “the very worst point of their relationship” following Kim’s purge of officials close to Beijing and Chinese President Xi’s decision to visit Seoul before Pyongyang on his first trip to the Korean peninsula in 2014.

Source: MENA