Japan announces new sanctions on North Korea

Army Gen. Ri Yong-gil, chief of the Korean People’s Army General Staff, also faced charges of pursuing personal gain, the South Korea’s Yonhap News Agency reported.

“We strongly urge North Korea to take positive steps toward a comprehensive resolution of various concerns, such as abductions, nuclear and missiles, under a policy of dialogue-and-pressure and action-for-action”, the Japanese government statement said.

“North Korea’s damage from a closure of the Gaeseong complex may not be as big as South Korea expects”, Cheong said by text message.

The United States and China, Pyongyang’s only major ally, are negotiating the outline of a new UN sanctions resolution that diplomats hope will be adopted this month.

2009: North Korea briefly restricts passage of South Koreans across the border at Kaesong to protest annual military drills between South Korea and the United States.

The Southeast Asian country is deeply concerned about a recent launch using ballistic missile technology by the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, Foreign Ministry Spokesman Le Hai Binh said on Tuesday, referring to the full name of the East Asian nation.

Then on February 7, Pyongyang said it had successfully launched an Earth satellite into orbit via the long-range Kwangmyongsong carrier rocket.

The latest North Korea rocket was based on engines taken from its massive stockpile of mid-range missiles based on Soviet-era technology and electrical parts too rudimentary to be targeted by a global missile control regime, experts said.

The problem is that delivering the content is risky, given North Korea’s history of brutal form of criminal justice, and often the charities have to cover the cost of the USB sticks (and, where necessary, bribes for North and South Korean officials) themselves.

South Korea’s government will provide financial compensation to companies that operate at Kaesong, Hong said.

It is clearly aimed at hitting the poverty-wracked country in its wallet – the Kaesong complex earns an estimated $100 million in annual salaries for North Korean workers, from 124 South Korean companies, to produce a variety of finished goods.

The South Korean government and companies have invested about 1 trillion won in the Kaesong complex including 616 billion won in cash since it opened in 2005, Hong said.

Days after North Korea launched a rocket that the global community says was a disguised missile test, Seoul said it was closing the Kaesong estate – the first time it has ever done so.

Its statement warned that North Korea’s unchecked progress towards nuclear weapons could lead other regional players to “shore up their security”, which could “even lead to a nuclear domino effect”. It is among the strongest punitive measures available to her.

In 2005, North Korea declared itself a nuclear power. Jonathan Vigliotti reports from London.

Tokyo – which feels particularly threatened by North Korea’s bellicose moves – unveiled its own fresh sanctions Wednesday.