Executive Order 13810:Additional Sanctions, North Korea

What the Executive Order says

Executive Order (EO) 13810 entitled "Imposing Additional Sanctions With Respect to North Korea" was issued on September 20th.  It has a preamble and 12 sections.  This EO was issued to strengthen sanctions against North Korea because of the launching of missiles.

Preamble

This section summarizes some of the reasons why North Korea continues to be a threat to the United States.

Section 1

This section declares that a lot of commercial activity with North Korea or its nationals is blocked.

Section 2

This section states that aircraft and vessels that have been in North Korea are blocked from coming to the USA for a period of 180 days after their departure from North Korea.

Section 3

This section declares that funds are frozen and that financial transfers with North Koreans are prohibited.

Section 4

This section directs the Secretary of the Treasury to impose sanctions on foreign financial institutions if they do business with North Korea.

Section 5

This section bars entry into the US of persons who are conducting business with North Korea as defined in section 1.

Section 6

This section prohibits trying to evade these requirements or forming a conspiracy to try to evade these requirements.

Section 7

This section exempts the Federal Government from the prohibitions in the Executive Order.

Section 8

This section provides definitions for "person", "entity", "United States person", "North Korean person", "foreign financial institution", and "knowingly."

Section 9

This section provides rationale for implementation of the prohibitions without any notice (such as is required in rulemaking normally).

Section 10

This section directs the Secretary of the Treasury to get on his horse and enforce all the provisions including creating rules and regulations.

Section 11

This section defines when the EO comes into effect.

Section 12

This section is legal fine print.

My Commentary

This is actually a good EO in my opinion.  While the rhetoric has been inflammatory and as a result of contradicting the Secretary of State, there is real confusion as to what the negotiating position of the USA is, at least this EO is clear as to the effects and takes a strong position to pressure North Korea and those who support it to stop launching missiles.  The EO includes references to and builds upon a number of previous EO's and various laws and regulations.  It has the hallmarks of being written by knowledgeable people within the administration who have done this kind of thing before.  The President only had to sign it.
Enforcement of such things, especially since a lot of the prohibited activities could perhaps be conducted in disguised ways and it will be difficult to prove motive in the way of many actions.  I also note that there has been a notice from the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control which listed a number of persons and entities from which property and interests are blocked.