Trump Administration Issues Executive Order Outlining New North Korea Sanctions

On Thursday, President Trump issued an executive order imposing additional sanctions on North Korea. The sanctions come in response to North Korea’s escalating weapons tests over the past months, including two intercontinental ballistic missile launches in July and a nuclear test in early September.

The new sanctions go significantly further than those imposed by the UN Security Council earlier this month. While the UN Security Council sanctions mostly focused on sanctioning those operating within North Korea (by instituting an assets freeze, as well as a partial oil embargo for example), the Trump administration’s sanctions more heavily target actors, such as China, that do international trade and business with North Korea, who then want to do business with the United States.

For the full text of the EO, see here. For a full text of OFAC’s updated FAQ related to the North Korea sanctions, see here.