No iPods for North Korea

In response to North Korea’s nuclear test last year, the U.S. has banned the export of luxury goods including iPods, jet skis and cognac. That’ll teach ‘em.

BBC:

The sanctions on luxury goods were “carefully considered and carefully targeted” to affect only the country’s elite, said US commerce department spokesman Richard Mills.

“It does not prohibit exports of food and medicine and other humanitarian goods.”

The banned list includes cognac - said to be the favourite tipple of North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il - as well as jet skis, jewellery and designer clothes.

The United Nations banned the sale of luxury goods to North Korea in response to its nuclear test on 9 October, but left individual countries to define those items.

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