Topic: International Affairs — Specific Country
Subject: International affairs
Date: 2013-04-26 00:00:00

North Korea Sanctions Enforcement Act of 2014 - Title I: Investigations, Prohibited Conduct, and Penalties - (Sec. 102) Directs the President, upon receipt of credible information about sanctionable activities involving the government of North Korea, to investigate the possible designation for sanctions of any person knowingly engaged in certain transactions with that government (including an individual, a corporation, business association, partnership, society, trust, financial institution, insurer, underwriter, guarantor, and any other business organization, any other nongovernmental entity, organization, or group, and any governmental entity operating as a business enterprise).

(Sec. 103) Requires the President to brief appropriate congressional committees, within 180 days after enactment of this Act, on efforts to implement it.

(Sec. 104) Directs the President to designate for sanctions any person that has knowingly:

 engaged in significant activities or transactions with North Korea that have materially contributed to the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) or missiles and other means of delivery of WMD, including any efforts to manufacture, acquire, possess, develop, transport, transfer, or use such items; imported, exported, or reexported to, into, or from North Korea any arms or related materiel, whether directly or indirectly; provided significant training, advice, or other services or assistance, or engaged in transactions, related to the manufacture, maintenance, or use of any arms or related materiel to be imported, exported, or reexported to, into, or from North Korea, whether directly or indirectly; imported, exported, or reexported, directly or indirectly, significant luxury goods to or into North Korea;\ engaged in or been responsible for censorship or serious human rights abuses by North Korea; engaged in significant acts of money laundering, the counterfeiting of goods or currency, bulk cash smuggling, narcotics trafficking, or other illicit activity that involves or supports North Korea; or attempted to engage in any of these activities. Requires the President to apply sanctions under this Act and exercise the authorities of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) to block all property and interests in property of any person designated under this Act that are in the United States, come within the United States, or are or come within the possession or control of any U.S. person, including any overseas branch.

Sets forth civil and criminal penalties under IEEPA.

Authorizes the President to designate and apply sanctions to any person that has knowingly engaged in, contributed to, or otherwise supported specified financial or related activities relating to any violation of, or evasion of, an applicable United Nations (U.N.) Security Council resolution, particularly one dealing with North Korea.

Directs the President to exercise IEEPA authorities to block all property and interests in property of the government of North Korea that are in the United States, come within the United States, or are or come within the possession or control of any U.S. person, including any overseas branch.

(Sec. 105) Subjects to forfeiture to the United States any property, real or personal, involved in an actual or attempted violation of this Act, or which constitutes or is derived from proceeds traceable to a violation, of it.

Title II: Sanctions Against North Korean Proliferation, Human Rights Abuses, and Illicit Activities - (Sec. 201) Declares the sense of Congress regarding designation of North Korea as a jurisdiction of primary money laundering concern.

Directs the Secretary of the Treasury to: (1) determine whether reasonable grounds exist for concluding that North Korea is such a jurisdiction, and, if so, (2) impose one or more special measures with respect to it.

(Sec. 202) Expresses the sense of Congress that the President should intensify diplomatic efforts, both in international fora such as the U.N. and bilaterally, to develop and implement a coordinated, consistent, multilateral strategy for protecting the global financial system against risks emanating from North Korea.

(Sec. 203) Requires a license for export to North Korea of any goods or technology subject to the Export Administration Regulations without regard to whether North Korea has been designated a country whose government has supported acts of international terrorism. Subjects any license, however, to a presumption of denial.

Applies certain prohibitions and restrictions of the Arms Export Control Act to exporting or otherwise providing, directly or indirectly, any munitions item to North Korea without regard to whether or not it is designated a state sponsor of terrorism.

Directs the President to withhold assistance under the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 to the governments of countries providing lethal military equipment to, or receiving it from, North Korea. Allows a waiver of this prohibition in the U.S. national interest.

(Sec. 204) Prohibits the federal government from procuring, or contracting to procure, any goods or services from a designated person.

Requires revision of the Federal Acquisition Regulation to require each prospective contractor to certify that it does not engage in any activity sanctionable under this Act. Requires termination of any contract with a person making a false certification, unless there are urgent and compelling circumstances significantly affecting U.S. interests. Requires agency heads to initiate a suspension and debarment proceeding against any person making such a false certification.

Declares, however, that the remedies of contract termination and suspension and debarment shall not apply with respect to federal procurement of the eligible products of certain foreign countries or instrumentalities under the Trade Agreements Act of 1979.

(Sec. 205) Directs the President, acting through the Secretary of Homeland Security (DHS), to report to specified congressional committees on foreign seaports and airports whose inspections of ships, aircraft, and conveyances originating in North Korea, carrying North Korean property, or operated by the North Korean government are deficient to effectively prevent the facilitation of any of the activities sanctionable under this Act.

Directs DHS, using the Automated Targeting System operated by the National Targeting Center in U.S. Customs and Border Protection, to require enhanced screening procedures to determine if physical inspections are warranted of any cargo bound for or landed in the United States that has been transported through such a seaport or airport if there are reasonable grounds to believe that such cargo contains goods prohibited under this Act.

Authorizes seizure and forfeiture of any vessel, aircraft, or conveyance used to facilitate any sanctionable activities that comes within U.S. jurisdiction.

(Sec. 206) Declares any alien (or any alien who is a corporate officer of a designated person) who the Secretary of State or the DHS Secretary knows, or has reasonable grounds to believe, is described in section 104 of this Act to be: (1) inadmissible to the United States, (2) ineligible to receive a visa or other documentation to enter the United States, and (3) otherwise ineligible to be admitted or paroled into the United States or to receive any other benefit under the Immigration and Nationality Act.

Requires revocation of any visa or other entry documentation already issued to such an alien.

Exempts from these requirements any alien who must be admitted to comply with the Agreement regarding the Headquarters of the United Nations.

(Sec. 207) Exempts from sanctions under this Act: (1) any authorized intelligence activities of the United States, and (2) any transaction necessary to comply with U.S. obligations under the Agreement regarding the Headquarters of the United Nations or the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations.

Allows discretionary exemptions from sanctions for transactions, financial or otherwise, involving humanitarian aid and imports into North Korea of non-luxury food products, agricultural products, medicine, or medical devices designated "EAR 99" under the Export Administration Regulations.

Authorizes the President to waive sanctions, on a case-by-case basis, for a year or more in specified circumstances. Requires the President to prescribe rules and regulations for the removal of sanctions and designations.

(Sec. 208) Declares the sense of Congress that the United States should work to increase the capacity of responsible nations to implement U.N. Security Council Resolutions 1695, 1718, 1874, 2087, and 2094, particularly to strengthen their capacity to monitor and interdict shipments to and from North Korea that contribute to prohibited activities under those Resolutions.

Title III: Promotion of Human Rights - (Sec. 301) Amends the North Korean Human Rights Act of 2004 to direct the President to submit to the appropriate congressional committees a classified report setting forth a detailed plan for making unrestricted, unmonitored, and inexpensive electronic mass communications available to the people of North Korea.

(Sec. 302) Directs the Secretary of State to report to the appropriate congressional committees specified information on: (1) each political prison camp in North Korea, and (2) each person responsible for serious human rights abuses or censorship in North Korea.

Title IV: General Authorities - (Sec. 401) Allows suspension for up to 365 days of any sanction or other measure under this Act upon presidential certification to Congress that the government of North Korea has taken specified significant steps with respect to:

 counterfeiting of U.S. currency, financial transparency, compliance with specified U.N. Resolutions, repatriation of citizens of other countries, distribution and monitoring of humanitarian aid, cessation of support for acts of international terrorism, improvement of living conditions in political prison camps, and planning for family reunification meetings. (Sec. 402) Specifies grounds for termination of sanctions or other measures under this Act.

(Sec. 405) Amends the Enhanced Partnership with Pakistan Act of 2009 to reduce the annual authorization of appropriations for assistance to Pakistan from $1.5 billion to $1.49 billion.