The United States imposes economic sanctions on North Korea for activities related to weapons proliferation, particularly its pursuit of nuclear weapons capability and a missile delivery system; regional disruptions; narcotics trafficking; undemocratic governance; and illicit activities in international markets, including money laundering, counterfeiting of goods and currency, and bulk cash smuggling. The entirety of North Korea is identified by the United States as a "jurisdiction of money laundering concern," which makes DPRK-origin or DPRK-related transactions to or through the U.S. financial system off limits. And the Government of North Korea is designated as a state sponsor of acts of international terrorism, which quashes most U.S. foreign aid, trade, investment, and support in international financial institutions. United States law has been applied to North Korea in the following ways in response to the North Korean government's objectionable activities: North Korea poses a threat to U.S. national security because of "the current existence and risk of the proliferation of weapons-usable fissile material on the Korean Peninsula," as declared by President George W. Bush on June 26, 2008, under the terms of the National Emergencies Act (NEA) and the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA); North Korea is cited by the United Nations Security Council for its nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles pursuits, withdrawal from the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, and contribution to regional tensions; the United States meets the requirements as a member state of the United Nations pursuant to the United Nations Participation Act of 1945 to implement sanctions adopted by the U.N. Security Council; North Korea committed an unprovoked attack that resulted in the sinking of a South Korean naval vessel, Cheonan ; announced a new nuclear test and missile launches in 2009; and engaged in money laundering, counterfeiting of goods and currency, bulk cash smuggling, and narcotics trafficking, all in violation of U.N. Security Council Resolutions, leading President Barack Obama to expand the national emergency in 2010, 2011, 2015, and 2016. President Donald Trump, in 2017, cited the "provocative, destabilizing, and repressive actions and policies of the Government of North Korea"; its intercontinental ballistic missile launches; its nuclear tests; violation of Security Council resolutions; and human rights abuses to continue the national emergency and impose additional sanctions. North Korea is a Marxist-Leninist state, with a Communist government, and stated as such in the Export-Import Bank Act of 1945, as amended, and further restricted under the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961; North Korea has engaged in proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, the State Department finds pursuant to the Arms Export Control Act; Export Administration Act of 1979; Iran, North Korea, and Syria Nonproliferation Act of 2000; and a national emergency declared by President George H. W. Bush relating to the proliferation of such weapons; North Korea is not cooperating fully with U.S. antiterrorism efforts, the State Department has determined, under terms of the Arms Export Control Act; North Korea has detonated a nuclear explosive device, President George W. Bush has determined, pursuant to the Arms Export Control Act, the Atomic Energy Act, and the Export-Import Bank Act of 1945; and North Korea engaged in "provocative, destabilizing, and repressive actions and policies," including "destructive, coercive cyber-related actions during November and December 2014," actions in violation of a multitude of U.N. Security Council resolutions, and commission of serious human rights abuses. At the President's discretion, North Korea also could be subject to economic sanctions provided in three provisions of law addressing human rights conditions: the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961, the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998, and the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000. The United States' concerns about North Korea's pursuit of nuclear weapons capability emerged in the 1980s when that country's nuclear weapons program became apparent. In the 1990s, the two countries negotiated and signed (in 1994) an Agreed Framework to freeze North Korea's plutonium-based nuclear energy program and provide heavy fuel oil until light-water reactors could be brought online, all funded to varying degrees by the European Union, Japan, South Korea, and the United States. Through the late 1990s, the United States and North Korea engaged in negotiations, initially to curtail missile tests and expanded to include differences on nuclear weapons and international terrorism. In October 2002, it came to light in negotiations between U.S. and North Korean government officials that North Korea was pursuing a uranium-based nuclear weapons capability. Diplomacy over North Korea's nuclear weapons program then entered a new phase; the Agreed Framework was abandoned and the United States, North Korea, South Korea, China, Japan, and Russia convened a new forum—the Six Party Talks, which held its first negotiations in August 2003. Despite several steps forward, including the United States ending decades-long sanctions imposed at the outset of the 1950-1953 conflict and its delisting of North Korea as a supporter of international terrorism, the Six Party Talks collapsed in late 2008. During this period and through 2017, North Korea has engaged in a number of acts that the international community deems provocative. It has tested short-, mid-, and long-range ballistic missiles since mid-2006, with varying degrees of success, abrogating a moratorium it complied with since 1998. In early 2009, North Korea began to test satellite launches, contrary to U.N. Security Council restrictions, and may have succeeded in placing a satellite in orbit in 2012. Most recently, it has tested missile launches from under the sea. On October 9, 2006, May 25, 2009, February 12, 2013, January 6, 2016, September 9, 2016, and again on September 3, 2017, North Korea reported that it had detonated a nuclear explosive device. The international community responded to the missile tests and nuclear detonations by taking the issue to the U.N. Security Council, which adopted resolutions that condemned the weapons tests and called on member states to impose economic sanctions. On March 26, 2010, a South Korean Navy ship, the Cheonan , was struck by a torpedo while sailing in the West Sea. The ship sank and 46 crew members were killed. The South Korean Ministry of National Defense formed a Civilian-Military Joint Investigation Group—with participants from five other nations including the United States—which found that the Cheonan was torpedoed by a North Korean submarine. North Korea denied involvement. The U.N. Security Council, in a presidential statement, condemned the attack, and acknowledged both the findings of the Investigation Group and the disavowal by North Korea. President Obama assigned responsibility to North Korea for the sinking of the Cheonan when, on August 30, 2010, he announced he was expanding the scope of the national emergency declared in 2008, and the United States was taking additional steps to curtail economic activity with North Korea: the continued actions and policies of the Government of North Korea, manifested most recently by its unprovoked attack that resulted in the sinking of the Republic of Korea Navy ship Cheonan and the deaths of 46 sailors in March 2010; its announced test of a nuclear device and its missile launches in 2009; its actions in violation of UNSCRs 1718 and 1874, including the procurement of luxury goods; and its illicit and deceptive activities in international markets through which it obtains financial and other support, including money laundering, the counterfeiting of goods and currency, bulk cash smuggling, and narcotics trafficking, destabilize the Korean peninsula and imperil U.S. Armed Forces, allies, and trading partners in the region, and thereby constitute an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security, foreign policy, and economy of the United States. President Obama's explicit identification of all features of North Korea's objectionable behavior constituting the threat is unusual compared to other invocations of his IEEPA authorities. The statute requires only that the President find that a threat to U.S. national security, foreign policy, or economy exists, and that its source is "in whole or substantial part outside the United States." The President identified North Korea's attack of the Cheonan and other acts of regional destabilization, pursuit of weapons of mass destruction and the means to deliver them, noncompliance with U.N. requirements, money laundering, counterfeiting, smuggling, and narcotics trafficking as compounding the threat. To this list, the President added, in January 2015, "cyber-related actions ... and commission of serious human rights abuses," the latter a nod to ground-breaking efforts in December 2014 in the United Nations General Assembly to refer reports of human rights atrocities in North Korea's prison system to both the U.N. Security Council and the International Criminal Court. Justifying the declaration of the emergency based on these wide-ranging activities accomplishes a number of goals: It confirms the United States' full support of and participation in implementation of the U.N. Security Council resolutions. It provides a clear list of concerns members of the U.S. diplomatic corps might raise and emphasize when speaking with North Korea's trading partners and benefactors. It states indisputable goals for North Korea to strive toward, meet, and surpass. It should be noted, however, that each of these forms of objectionable behavior likely would be grounds, under current law, for restricting trade, aid, arms sales, and access to assets even if the national emergency were to be revoked. United States economic sanctions imposed on North Korea, as a result both of requirements in U.S. law and decisions made in the executive branch to exercise discretionary authorities, have the following impact: Trade is limited to food, medicine, and other humanitarian-related goods, all of which require a license.