Publication

Since the outbreak of the Korean War in 1950, the US had imposed fairly comprehensive economic, diplomatic, and political restrictions on North Korea. On June 26, 2008, however, when multilateral negotiations appeared to be making progress toward North Korea disabling and dismantling its nuclear weapons enterprise, President George W. Bush removed restrictions based on authorities in the Trading With the Enemy Act and the terrorism designation, replacing them with more circumscribed economic restrictions related to proliferation concerns. Other statute-based restrictions, however, sustain a fairly comprehensive sanctions regime on North Korea.