The Volokh Conspiracy

The AP reports:

In a novel effort targeting the lifestyle of North Korea's eccentric president, the Bush administration wants to make it tougher for him to buy iPods, plasma televisions, Segway electric scooters and more.

It is Washington's first-ever attempt to use trade penalties as a way of personally aggravating a foreign leader. They target items believed to be favored by Kim Jong Il or presented by him as gifts to the roughly 600 loyalist families who run the communist government....

The ban would extend even to musical instruments and sports equipment. The 5-foot-3 Kim is an enthusiastic basketball fan; Secretary of State Madeleine Albright presented him with a ball signed by Michael Jordan during a rare diplomatic trip in 2000. Kim's former secretary, widely believed to be his new wife, studied piano at North Korea's Pyongyang University of Music and Dance....

Experts said the U.S. luxury sanctions would be the first ever to curtail a specific category of goods not associated with military buildups or weapons designs -- and the first tailored to annoy a foreign leader. They acknowledge that enforcing the ban on black-market trading would be difficult.

"He's got folks who can move around nuclear weapons. If he tells these guys to get him a case of Scotch, they're going to pull it off," said James A. Lewis, a former State Department official who worked on arms controls. "Unless it's too large to fit into the cargo hold of a commercial aircraft, it's going to be tough to restrain him." ...

	[Eugene Volokh, November 30, 2006 at 12:04pm] Trackbacks Huh: The AP reports: In a novel effort targeting the lifestyle of North Korea's eccentric president, the Bush administration wants to make it tougher for him to buy iPods, plasma televisions, Segway electric scooters and more. It is Washington's first-ever attempt to use trade penalties as a way of personally aggravating a foreign leader. They target items believed to be favored by Kim Jong Il or presented by him as gifts to the roughly 600 loyalist families who run the communist government.... The ban would extend even to musical instruments and sports equipment. The 5-foot-3 Kim is an enthusiastic basketball fan; Secretary of State Madeleine Albright presented him with a ball signed by Michael Jordan during a rare diplomatic trip in 2000. Kim's former secretary, widely believed to be his new wife, studied piano at North Korea's Pyongyang University of Music and Dance.... Experts said the U.S. luxury sanctions would be the first ever to curtail a specific category of goods not associated with military buildups or weapons designs -- and the first tailored to annoy a foreign leader. They acknowledge that enforcing the ban on black-market trading would be difficult. "He's got folks who can move around nuclear weapons. If he tells these guys to get him a case of Scotch, they're going to pull it off," said James A. Lewis, a former State Department official who worked on arms controls. "Unless it's too large to fit into the cargo hold of a commercial aircraft, it's going to be tough to restrain him." ...