Seoul sanctions top aides of North’s Kim

South Korea blacklisted several top aides of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un on Friday as part of a fresh set of its unilateral sanctions aimed at helping curb the defiant neighbor’s nuclear and missile programs.

The package is also designed to tighten Seoul’s squeeze on Pyongyang’s financial and maritime networks and reinforce export controls.

The announcement followed two days after the UN Security Council approved a new resolution in response to Pyongyang’s fifth nuclear test in September. Japan also said Friday it had decided to toughen its own sanctions on the North Korea. 

“By including for the first time North Korean institutions involved in coal and labor exports, which are a major source of their foreign currency revenue, we’re looking to remind the international community that having transactions with them may contribute to bolstering the North’s weapons of mass destruction capabilities,” Lee Suk-joon, minister of the Office for Government Policy Coordination, said at a news conference.

“The measures are also anticipated to have an effect in cutting funding sources that might be siphoned off for WMD development.”

Under the plan, Seoul newly designated 36 high-profile North Korean officials and 35 entities subject to an asset freeze and ban on any financial transactions with South Koreans.

Among the individuals are Hwang Pyong-so, director of the General Political Bureau of the Korean People’s Army; Choe Ryong-hae, vice chairman of the Central Committee of the ruling Workers’ Party; Kim Won-hong, minister of state security; and Pak Yong-sik, minister of the People’s Armed Forces.

Speculation had persisted the names may include Kim himself and his younger sister Yo-jong. But Seoul officials appear to have opted for some of Kim’s closest servants, who often accompany him on field inspections and other key events, leaving the possibility for a potential future blacklisting of the Kim dynasty.

The sanctioned groups include top state organs such as the Workers’ Party, the State Affairs Commission and the party’s Central Military Commission, as well as Air Koryo, the nation’s sole airline, which is suspected of transporting overseas laborers, cash and prohibited goods.

Dandong Hongxiang Industrial Development, a Chinese industry machinery wholesaler based in the North Korean border region, and four of its executives were added to the roster over allegations that they have provided financial services and illicit supplies to Pyongyang. In September, Washington sanctioned the company and Beijing launched an investigation into the charges.

In total, the new designations brought South Korea’s list to 79 persons and 69 organizations.

In a move to further dismantle the regime’s maritime network, Seoul decided to bar foreign-flag and flag-of-convenience ships from entering the South if they had stopped at the North within the previous year – doubling the time period set out in the existing rule.

The government also plans to increase its watch list of sensitive items from the current 22 to 33 by adding 11 types of minerals under the UN ban, including coal, iron, iron ore, gold and rare earth metals.

Given the almost complete halt to economic and people-to-people exchanges between the two Koreas, the blacklisting would bear more symbolic implications and the government’s intention to rally other likeminded countries behind its sanctions campaign.

But sources of controversy linger, with skeptics saying Seoul may have to make way for a violation of its own bans in the future when a cross-border thaw is in the offing and the sanctioned officials offer to visit the South.

Hwang and Choe, who are deemed the two most powerful men after Kim, traveled to the South and held talks with top Seoul officials in October 2014 on the margins of the Incheon Asian Games.

“So far North Korea has not signaled any change in its course and any intent for a denuclearization, we have no option but to continue imposing sanctions and pressure together with the international community,” Lee said when asked about the prospects for a reconciliation.

“Under the current circumstances, I would say it’s inappropriate to speak of dialogue.”

In Tokyo, the Japanese government introduced its own new unilateral sanctions including an expanded reentry ban on executives of the General Association of Korean Residents in Japan, a pro-North organization better known as Chongryon, and foreign nationals engaged in illicit nuclear and missile development activities.

Japan also plans to prohibit all vessels that have called at North Korean ports from accessing the archipelago country, and freeze assets of additional individuals and organizations linked with Pyongyang’s nuclear and missile program.

“It is a new phase of threat that North Korea has forced … Japan absolutely cannot tolerate these acts of violence,” Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said at a news conference, referring to this year’s underground blasts and missile firings.

“Japan will consider further measures depending on moves by North Korea and the international society.”

The US, for its part, will unveil its own fresh sanctions package in line with the three countries’ consultations and efforts to shore up the UN resolution’s implementation, Seoul officials noted. 

By Shin Hyon-hee (heeshin@heraldcorp.com)