Author

Hannah N. Zarkar

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Introduction

Following the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea’s (“DPRK” or “North Korea“) latest nuclear test and rocket launch on 6 January 2016 and 7 February 2016 respectively, the UN Security Council (“UNSC“) unanimously adopted Resolution 2270 (2016) (the “UN Resolution“) on 2 March 2016.

The UN Resolution contains far-reaching sanctions aimed at cutting off funds for DPRK’s nuclear and other banned weapons programmes, whilst avoiding “adverse humanitarian consequences” for civilians. The UN Resolution adds sectoral sanctions, broadens the scope of the existing financial sanctions and arms embargo, imposes new measures targeting proliferation networks, and expands the list of designated individuals and entities.

On December 22, 2015, the US Office of Foreign Assets Control (“OFAC”) announced that it had added 34 parties (i.e., 12 individuals and 22 entities) to the Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons List (“SDN List”) and 86 entities to the Sectoral Sanctions Identifications List (“SSI List”) under the US Government’s Russia/Ukraine-related Sanctions Program. In a press release, OFAC stated that these designations are part of its continued efforts to counter attempts to circumvent US Russia/Ukraine-related sanctions, to further align US sanctions…

On Friday, September 18, 2015, the US Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (“OFAC”) and the US Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security (“BIS”) announced amendments (the “September Amendments”) to the Cuban Assets Control Regulations (“CACR”) and the Export Administration Regulations (“EAR”) in a continuing effort to relax certain aspects of the US embargo against Cuba. The September Amendments follow an earlier relaxation on January 16, 2015 (the “January Amendments”) and the policy changes originally announced…

On May 29, 2015, the US Government announced Cuba’s removal from the list of State Sponsors of Terrorism (the “SST List”), five months after President Obama instructed Secretary of State John Kerry to reevaluate Cuba’s designation as a State Sponsor of Terrorism.  We reported on the US Government’s process of reevaluating Cuba’s inclusion on the SST List in our blog post of April 16, 2015.  A 45-day period for the US Congress to review the…