US tightens licensing requirements for certain medical device exports to N. Korea

Washington, June 13 (IANS) The US Treasury Department has published a list of medical devices requiring “specific authorisation” for export to North Korea, a Federal Register notice showed, apparently tightening licensing requirements for the items amid North Korea’s advancing nuclear and missile threats.

On Thursday, the department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) released the list of medical devices that may not be exported or reexported to North Korea under a general license that authorises the exportation to the North of certain agricultural commodities, medicine and medical devices.

The items on the new list require specific authorisation from the OFAC for exports to North Korea, the office said. The list took effect on Thursday, reports Yonhap news agency.

The list includes oxygen generators, pumps with flow rates of more than one litre per minute and diagnostic medical imaging equipment, such as gamma imaging equipment, tactile imaging equipment and thermography equipment.

Also on the list are laboratory items, such as freeze-drying and spray-drying equipment, decontamination showers, laboratory shakers and incubator shakers, and carbon dioxide incubators.

The licensing requirements could curb the exportation of dual-use items that could be used for both civilian and military purposes at a time when Pyongyang has been doubling down on its weapons programs in the absence of dialogue with Washington or Seoul on its nuclear program.

Meanwhile, a senior South Korean official has said that it is “too early” to say whether President Lee Jae Myung would meet U.S. President Donald Trump for a summit on the sidelines of the Group of Seven (G7) summit in France next week.

The remarks by the presidential official on Thursday came as both Lee and Trump are expected to attend the G7 gathering set to take place in Evian from Monday to Wednesday.

Lee is scheduled to attend the G7 summit from Tuesday to Wednesday as the head of an invited partner, marking the second consecutive year South Korea has been invited to the event. “Dialogue can take place if opportunities are facilitated, but it is difficult to comment on the possibility of arranging it for now,” the official noted.

–IANS

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