Yeah, it doesn't exactly seem like a William Worthy[1] type of scenario.
If you actively aid a country in avoiding financial sanctions† then you pretty much only have yourself to blame when you eventually get thrown in prison for a few years.
I think it is well understood that with the way political hierarchies are structured, economic sanctions always impact the people with the least amount of power before anyone of the insulated power wielding people at the top lose any sleep.
I'm not even sure historically that economic sanctions have ever resulted in the proclaimed goals of the sanctions. How long have we had economic sanctions on NK? Has the result been our stated goals of the economic sanction?
If you actively aid a country in avoiding financial sanctions† then you pretty much only have yourself to blame when you eventually get thrown in prison for a few years.
[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Worthy#Right_to_travel...
†: Medical and food sanctions are a different question imo.