Export ban sanction again to violator North Korea trade

According to News Release of METI on July 28, 2011, METI announced again the export prohibition sanction to a violator who made export to North Korea without approval.   The penalty sanction is to First Shokai (or First Trade) K.K. who is likely to be a small trade house in Sakaiminato, Tottori prefecture.
The export Prohibition sanction to First Shokai K.K. is for six months (from August 3, 2011 to February 2, 2012) of all goods to all destinations.  This export prohibition is applied also to the transaction by third parties.

First Shokai K.K. exported piano and candies etc to North Korea without METI approval via Dalian in China.  I believe export control expert easily understand the difference of export "permission" and export "approval" under Foreign Trade and Foreign Exchange Law ("FEFTL").  Obviously, First Shokai K.K. did not export dual-use items which may contribute to the development, manufacturing, and use of Weapon of Massive Destruction ("WMD"), they exported piano and candies which are luxury goods or commodities.

• Export Permission = for weapon, dual-use goods, non-controlled items under catch-all based on Article 48 (1) of FEFTL.  The items list is in Appendix 1 of Export Trade Control Order ("ETCO")
• Export Approval = for luxury goods or commodities, in this particular case, North Korea trade sanction due to UNSCR and Japanese government policy based on Article 48 (3) of FEFTL.  The items list is in Appendix 2 (and 2-2) of ETCO.

As for penalty sanction, violation of export "without permission" is much heavier than "without approval".

• Export prohibition sanction in violation of without permission = not more than 3 years based on Article 53 (1) of FEFTL.
• Export (or import) prohibition sanction in violation of without approval = not more than 1 year based on Article 53 (2) of FEFTL.

Many of export control specialist tend to focus on dual-use items only, but it is also important to pay attention to export approval of Appendix 2 of ETCO, which covers broad range of items.

(Source:  http://www.meti.go.jp/press/2011/07/20110728006/20110728006.html )

Update:  By the way, apart from METI sanction, it is worth while noticing this violation case is the first criminal prosecution that the offender got imprisonment sentence (1 year and 4 months) without suspended period.  This is the first case in the history of export control violation in Japan.  In other words, all other export violation cases in Japan have been with suspended sentence.
(http://www.cistec.or.jp/export/ihanjirei/fuseiyusyutu_jiken.pdf)