For Immediate Release
June 22, 2000

Commerce Publishes Rules
Easing Sanctions For North Korea

WASHINGTON -- The U.S. Department of Commerce will administer controls on exports under the Administration's decision to ease trade sanctions on North Korea. Regulations detailing the conditions, which allow North Korea to receive most U.S. consumer products without a license, were published today and include agricultural, medical, and low-level industrial goods and services. The new rules are effective immediately.

The Administration's sanctions easing program continues to require a license for items on the Commerce Control List (CCL), including items added specifically for continued control to North Korea. This includes items controlled multilaterally for nuclear, missile and chemical-biological weapons reasons, as well as a range of lower-level products and technologies controlled for antiterrorism and nonproliferation reasons.

Items controlled for antiterrorism reasons to North Korea include: aircraft and aircraft parts; encryption products; most telecommunications equipment; and computers at or above six MTOPS. License applications for computers up to 2,000 MTOPS to nonmilitary or non-nuclear end-users will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. BXA also created several new entries on the CCL to control specific production equipment and software for North Korea.

To view the Federal Register publication implementing the sanctions easing program for North Korea, refer to www.gpo.gov/bxa. Also, refer to BXA's Web site at http://www.bxa.doc.gov/Default.htm. for specific questions and answers on exporting to North Korea.