US extends national emergencies for North Korea and Western Balkans, maintaining sanctions authority
President Donald Trump has extended national emergency declarations for North Korea and the Western Balkans for another year, preserving the legal foundation for US sanctions as the administration continues to cite ‘unusual and extraordinary’ threats to national security.
The extensions, announced in Federal Register notices, maintain the president’s authority under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act to impose financial sanctions and other restrictions on individuals and entities connected to both regions.
Regarding North Korea, Trump stated that ‘the existence and risk of the proliferation of weapons-usable fissile material on the Korean Peninsula and the actions and policies of the Government of North Korea continue to pose an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security, foreign policy, and economy of the United States’.
For the Western Balkans, the White House cited ‘actions of persons threatening the peace and international stabilization efforts in the Western Balkans, including acts of extremist violence and obstructionist activity’ which ‘stymies progress toward effective and democratic governance and full integration into transatlantic institutions’.
The North Korea national emergency was first declared in June 2008 and has been expanded multiple times to address Pyongyang’s nuclear programme, cyber attacks, human rights abuses, and sanctions evasion activities. The Western Balkans emergency, originally declared in June 2001, was most recently expanded through Trump’s Executive Order 14140 in January this year to target corruption and efforts to undermine regional sovereignty.
These are among several national emergency declarations that the Trump administration has extended as part of its strategy to maintain economic pressure on countries and regions considered to pose threats to US security interests.
Emails for comment to the North Korean mission at the United Nations in New York and to the Western Balkans Fund, which represents the governments of the six Western Balkan countries, did not receive immediate responses.
