New Visas are being introduced for skilled/semi skilled: https://aristonesolicitors.co.uk/news/new-uk-visas-set-to-la...
UK is NOT trying to emulate North Korea. This is a bad faith statement. Those countries (USA, China, Singapore) you mentioned are not in the EU Common Travel Area either.
On trade, the UK is negotiating new trade deals: https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/cbp-... A fair criticism is that this hasn't gone far enough yet.