(VOVworld) - The United States has extended its financial sanctions on the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea for another twelve months as tensions remain over the country’s nuclear activities. In a notice to Congress on Friday, President Barack Obama cited the continued unusual and extraordinary threat posed by Pyongyang. Obama cited the risk of proliferation of weapons-grade nuclear material on the Korean Peninsula, and the actions and policies of the North Korean regime that destabilize the region and endanger the US and its allies in Northeast Asia. The sanctions which need to be extended annually under the 1977 International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA), had been set to expire next week.

The IEEPA, enacted by Congress in 1977, substantially broadened the power and authority of the President with regard to national emergencies. It grants the President, during times of “unusual and extraordinary threat,” the authority to control and regulate transactions involving foreign exchange, banking, currency, and securities, and to control and prohibit imports, exports, and property transactions that are subject to US jurisdiction.