Enhancing multilateral sanctions exemptions

(a) In general The Secretary of State shall direct the United States Permanent Representative to the United Nations to use the voice, vote, and influence of the United States to urge the United Nations— (1) to extend the period for humanitarian exemptions from the 1718 Sanctions Committee to 1 year and remove the limitation on exemption applications per organization per year; (2) to apply lessons learned from expedited approvals of requests for humanitarian exemptions during the COVID–19 pandemic to speed approval at the 1718 Sanctions Committee of other critical exemption requests, such as requests that would address urgent needs identified in the annual reports of the United Nations on needs and priorities for North Korea; and (3) to modify applications for humanitarian exemptions from the 1718 Sanctions Committee to be less burdensome for nongovernmental organizations, drawing as appropriate on successes in approaches taken by other United Nations sanctions committees. (b) Reporting Not later than 90 days after the date of the enactment of this Act, and every 180 days thereafter, the Secretary of State shall submit to the appropriate congressional committees a report— (1) describing any requests for humanitarian exemptions to the 1718 Sanctions Committee known to have been denied in the 180 days preceding submission of the report or known to have been in process for more than 60 days as of the date of the report, and any known explanations for such denials and delays; (2) detailing any action by a foreign government in the 180 days preceding submission of the report that has delayed or impeded humanitarian assistance approved by the 1718 Sanctions Committee, including the status of obstacles to humanitarian assistance posed by customs officials in the People’s Republic of China; and (3) describing efforts in the 180 days preceding submission of the report to establish or maintain an approved banking channel for transactions related to humanitarian assistance for North Korea.