A U.S. professor says financial sanctions are having no major effect on North Korea due to the political and economic conditions in the communist state.

Randall Newnham, Associate Professor of Political Science at Penn State University, made the comment in a forum at the Korea Economic Institute in Washington.

He said both economic and political indicators suggest a failure of sanctions, explaining that North Korea is "extremely closed politically which allows the regime to impose incredible hardships on its own people without sparking political revolt."

Newnham said the U.N. has been unable to pass strong sanctions against the North. He said that "while the West has sanctioned it strongly, other partners, notably China, have helped to keep the country afloat." He said that in the end, Pyongyang has decided to ignore sanctions and press ahead with its weapons of mass destruction program.