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

The Treasury Department building is pictured at dusk in Washington, Jun. 6, 2019. AP-Yonhap

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Treasury Department has published a list of medical devices requiring "specific authorization" for export to North Korea, a Federal Register notice showed Friday, 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 authorizes the exportation to the North of certain agricultural commodities, medicine and medical devices.

The items on the new list require specific authorization from the OFAC for exports to North Korea, the office said. The list took effect on Thursday.

The list includes oxygen generators, pumps with flow rates of more than one liter 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 both 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.