South Korea, Japan impose new unilateral sanctions on North Korea

[SEOUL] South Korea and Japan said on Friday they would impose new unilateral sanctions on North Korea over its nuclear and ballistic missile programmes, following a fresh UN Security Council resolution imposed on the reclusive country this week.

North Korea has rejected the UN resolution, aimed at cutting Pyongyang's annual export revenue by a quarter after its fifth and largest nuclear test in September, as a conspiracy masterminded by the United States to deny its sovereignty.

Both South Korea and Japan already have comprehensive unilateral sanctions in place against North Korea.

South Korea said in a statement its expanded measures would blacklist senior North Korean officials, including leader Kim Jong Un's closest aides, Choe Ryong Hae and Hwang Pyong So.

Mr Hwang, at one point considered North Korea's second-most powerful official outside the ruling Kim family, is already subject to US Treasury sanctions.

South Korea also said it would ban entry from the South by foreign missile and nuclear experts if their visits to North Korea were deemed to be a threat to South Korean national interests.

Japan said on Friday it too would add to its own list of unilateral sanctions, including a ban on all ships that have called at ports in North Korea, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told a news conference.

"It is a new phase of threat that North Korea forced, carrying out nuclear tests twice this year and launching more than 20 missiles, and it is enhancing capability. Japan absolutely cannot tolerate these acts of violence," Mr Suga said. "Japan will consider further measures depending on moves by North Korea and the international society," he said.

Tokyo will freeze the assets of more groups and individuals connected to North Korea's nuclear and missile programmes, he said.

The US Ambassador to the United Nations, Samantha Power, told the Security Council on Wednesday the United States was realistic about what the new sanctions on North Korea could achieve.

"No resolution in New York will likely, tomorrow, persuade Pyongyang to cease its relentless pursuit of nuclear weapons. But this resolution imposes unprecedented costs on the DPRK (North Korea) regime for defying this council's demands," she said.

In February, Seoul suspended operations at a jointly run factory park just inside North Korea, ending the only significant daily interaction across the heavily fortified inter-Korean border.

In March, Seoul released a list of companies and individuals it said were connected to North Korea's weapons trade and nuclear and missile programmes.

South Korea said its new sanctions would expand the entities on that list to include Dandong Hongxiang Industrial Development, a Chinese company sanctioned by the United States in September for using front companies to evade sanctions on North Korea's banned programmes.

The new US-drafted UN resolution is intended to slash North Korea's exports of coal, its biggest export item, by about 60 per cent with an annual sales cap of US$400.9 million, or 7.5 million metric tonnes, whichever is lower.

It also bans North Korean copper, nickel, silver and zinc exports - and the sale of statues. Pyongyang is famous for building huge, socialist-style statues which it exports mainly to African countries.

REUTERS