The United Nations Security Council has imposed new sanctions against five North Korean officials, four companies and a state agency, and banned imports of two weapons-making materials, in a rare unified push by the world's powers to thwart Pyongyang's nuclear ambitions, The Associated Press reported.
The sanctions, which take immediate effect and are to be carried out by all of the U.N.'s 192 member nations, include travel bans and a freeze on the financial assets against the officials, companies and state agency, according to AP.
Nations also were instructed to refrain from supplying North Korea with certain types of graphite and para-aramid fiber ― two of the materials used in ballistic missile parts.
``It is of course significant that we have also put individuals on the list, as this is the first time. This shows that the sanctions are going on a higher level at this moment,'' Fazli Corman, Turkey's deputy U.N. ambassador, who chairs the panel, was quoted as saying.
The five are Ri Je-son, director of the General Bureau of Atomic Energy; Yun Ho-ji, director of Namchongang Trading Corp.; Ri Hong-sop, former head of the Yongbyon Nuclear Research Center; Hwang Sok-hwa, a senior official of the General Bureau of Atomic Energy, and Han Yu-ro, director of Korea Ryongakan General Trading Corp.
Ri Je-son is said to be in charge of North Korea's nuclear programs while representing the North in dealing with the International Atomic Energy Agency.
Yun Ho-jin was caught smuggling 22 tons of high strength aluminum pipes out of Germany in 2003. He allegedly insisted that the pipes were destined for a Chinese aviation firm, but the IAEA suspected that they might be for centrifuges for uranium enrichment.
Hwang Sok-hwa and Ri Hong-sop are senior nuclear scientists. Ju Kyu-chang, a member of the North's all-powerful National Defense Commission, and several other prominent North Korean officials and nuclear scientists, however, were not included in an apparent compromise with reluctant China, North Korea's staunchest communist ally.