Seoul slaps additional sanctions vs N.K. for a barrage of missile fire and nuclear test threat

[Photo by Yonhap]

South Korea on Friday has packaged fresh unilateral sanctions against North Korean institutions and individuals for the first time in nearly five years to response to Pyongyang’s threat on nuclear test and its series of ballistic missiles.

“We strongly condemn the unprecedentedly frequent series of missile provocations,” South Korea’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a release Friday, while placing 15 individuals and 16 institutions on its blacklist.

They include those that contributed to the regime’s nuclear and missile development and violation of U.N. Security Council resolutions.

The Korean markets shrugged off the escalating tensions in the Korean Peninsula, with the key Kospi index adding 2.6 percent and the Kosdaq 3.9 percent. The U.S. dollar fell 11.3 won to 1,427.70 won.

The last time Seoul mounted independent sanctions against Pyongyang was in December 2017 when 20 institutions and 12 individuals including those from financial agencies and shipping firms were blacklisted in the wake of North Korea’s inter-continental ballistic missile (ICBM) Hwasong-15 launch.

The additions to the list are figures and researchers related to the Academy of National Defense Science, also called Second Academy of Natural Sciences, already under sanctions by the UN Security Council. They engaged in financing and bringing in materials to North Korea for weapons of mass destruction and missile development, Seoul said. The academy is an institution that researches and develops advanced weapons.

Other institutions are Ministry of Rocket Industry, Sungnisan Trading Corporation, labor recruitment firm GENCO, and other shipping firms that engaged in smuggling of vessels, minerals, and crude.

The individuals and organizations on the new sanctions list are banned from financial and foreign exchange trade with South Korea without prior government consent. The names are already blacklisted by the U.S. government.

The blacklisting on top of May 24 2010 sanctions banning any form of exchange with North Korea would be more “symbolic” than having a meaningful effect.

“We expect to prevent illegal fund trade with the institutions and individuals and raise awareness on the danger of the individuals and institutions internationally and domestically,” the ministry said.

By slamming sanctions, Seoul would be sending a hard-line message to Pyongyang on its nuclear threat and provocations.

Pyongyang fired a short-range ballistic missile into the East Sea and about 170 artillery shots into the Yellow and East Sea on Friday in its latest provocation to counter South Korean artillery exercise.

[ㄏ Maeil Business Newspaper & mk.co.kr, All rights reserved]