Foreign Assets Control Regulations (US, 1950)

The Foreign Assets Control Regulations, formerly 31 C.F.R. part 500, were United States Treasury regulations issued in December 1950 under the Trading with the Enemy Act (United States, 1917). They blocked covered Chinese and North Korean property and restricted transactions following China's entry into the Korean War. Treasury removed part 500 from the Code of Federal Regulations on 20 June 2011. It is not a current sanctions programme.

Historical authority and effect

President Harry Truman proclaimed a national emergency on 16 December 1950. Treasury issued the regulations the next day and formally established the Office of Foreign Assets Control. The rules adapted the existing foreign-funds-control model to China and North Korea, using blocking, transaction prohibitions, reporting and licensing.

Blocking immobilised covered property within United States jurisdiction. It did not automatically transfer title to the United States. A general or specific licence could authorise defined activity, and the legal position of blocked property differed from a criminal forfeiture or vesting action.

The programme's two country branches did not remain static. United States restrictions concerning China eased during rapprochement in the 1970s. A 1979 claims agreement between the United States and the People's Republic of China provided for settlement of claims and unblocking of Chinese assets. Later amendments and licences altered the remaining treatment. The 1950 blanket cannot be projected unchanged across subsequent decades.

Nor did the claims settlement extinguish every private dispute or turn every previously blocked interest into freely transferable property on the same date. The agreement, Treasury amendments and facts of the account governed release. Historical claims therefore require the operative rule and asset status at the relevant time.

North Korea transition

On 26 June 2008, Presidential Proclamation 8271 terminated application of Trading with the Enemy Act authorities to North Korea from 27 June. Executive Order 13466 simultaneously declared a new emergency under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act and continued specified restrictions. The legal basis therefore changed even where a practical restriction persisted.

OFAC created the North Korea Sanctions Regulations, 31 C.F.R. part 510, in 2010. On 20 June 2011, Treasury removed parts 500 and 505 and amended part 510. Current North Korea restrictions now rest on part 510, executive orders, statutes and United Nations implementation, not the removed Foreign Assets Control Regulations.

Institutional significance and limits

Part 500 helped establish the regulatory architecture later associated with OFAC: programme rules, blocked property, licences, records and penalties. Institutional lineage does not make every later programme a continuation of the same authority. Modern programmes use different emergencies, statutes, executive orders, definitions and jurisdictional rules.

The regulations also show why historical legal status matters. A current reference to "31 C.F.R. part 500" as operative would misstate the law. Claims about China or North Korea at a particular date must identify the version then in force and any relevant licence, unblocking action or successor authority.

See also

Trading with the Enemy Act (United States, 1917) · Office of Foreign Assets Control (United States) · International Emergency Economic Powers Act (1977) · Asset freeze · North Korea · China

Sources

1. Presidential Proclamation 2914, Proclaiming the Existence of a National Emergency, 16 December 1950.
2. Office of Foreign Assets Control, About OFAC, institutional history checked 30 July 2026.
3. Presidential Proclamation 8271 and Executive Order 13466, Treasury summary, 26 June 2008.
4. Department of the Treasury, Removal of Foreign Assets Control Regulations and amendment of North Korea Sanctions Regulations, 20 June 2011.
5. Office of Foreign Assets Control, North Korea sanctions, current authorities checked 30 July 2026.
6. United States Department of Justice, Foreign Claims Settlement Commission, Completed Programs: China, including the 1979 claims agreement, updated 3 January 2025.