Korea mulls blacklisting Chinese firm for deals with NK: sources

South Korea is considering blacklisting a Chinese firm suspected of being involved in illicit deals with North Korea as part of efforts to prevent money from flowing into the communist state that is defiantly pursuing a nuclear weapons program, government sources said Tuesday.

The Seoul government is currently reviewing "if and when" it will place China's Dandong Hongxiang Industrial Development Co. on the list of companies subject to its own unilateral sanctions, according to the sources close to the matter.

The Chinese firm is under investigation on suspicions that it exported aluminum oxide, which can be used in enriching uranium, a nuclear bomb ingredient, to the North at least twice in recent years.

If it is blacklisted, its assets in South Korea will be subject to oversight and any financial deals with South Koreans will be banned.

"Detailed and effective unilateral sanctions measures, including that (with regard to the Chinese firm), are under consideration," Cho June-hyuck, foreign ministry spokesman, told a regular press briefing. He declined to elaborate further.

In September, the US blacklisted the Chinese company along with its owner and three other company officials in the first move ever to impose sanctions on a Chinese entity over Pyongyang's weapons programs.

Currently, the United Nations Security Council is working on a fresh resolution against the North following its fifth nuclear test in September.

The efforts are reportedly focused on covering the "loopholes" through which the North is suspected of getting its hands on money needed for its nuclear and missile programs.

Blacklisting Dandong Honxiang is seen as a loosened form of the "secondary boycott" aimed at penalizing any third-country entities involved in business dealings with Pyongyang.

Last month, Japan's Kyodo News reported that the Tokyo government is considering blacklisting companies based in China and other countries found to have deals with the North, and employ workers from the reclusive country.  (Yonhap)