Unilateral measures to be unveiled today
By Yi Whan-woo
The government today will unveil a list of additional North Korean officials and institutions that will be barred from trading with South Korean companies and banks, sources say.
South Korea will also freeze their assets here if there are any.
The measures are included in a set of the South's unilateral sanctions to be announced at 3 p.m. today to cut off the flow of cash into North Korea.
The North Korean figures and institutions subject to the South's own sanctions are separate from the 16 individuals and 12 entities blacklisted by the U.N Security Council in the latest resolution.
"The government's measures may not be so effective, considering North Korean individuals and entities may not have assets in the South and they do not have financial transactions with South Korean financial companies," a source said.
"But those measures will be meaningful in a way that the international community can take precautions. It is expected that other countries will take Seoul's measures into account and refrain from contacting targeted individuals and entities."
South Korea will also ban the entry of ships from other nations if the vessels have visited North Korea, or if the vessels are suspected of originating from the repressive state but are flying other countries' flags.
If imposed, the ban will be additional to Seoul's sanctions imposed on May 24, 2010 in retaliation for North Korea's sinking of the South Korean naval frigate Cheonan in March the same year.
Under the retaliatory measures, all North Korean-flagged vessels are prohibited from entering South Korean waters or making port calls here regardless of circumstances.
Meanwhile, speculation is growing that South Korea will scrap the so-called "Rajin-Hassan Project," a logistics project involving North Korea and Russia.
The project is aimed at importing Siberia-produced coal by transporting it by train between Russia's border town of Rajin and North Korea's port in Hassan and then loading the coal on to ships.
Before approval of the UNSC resolution Russia, a veto-wielding member of the U.N. Security Council, used its influence in the last minute to ensure that exports of Siberia-produced coals via Rajin would continue.
It is speculated Seoul's diplomatic ties with Moscow will deteriorate if the Korean government halts the project.
The latest U.N. resolution is aimed at putting further pressure on Pyongyang for carrying out its latest nuclear test and long-range rocket launch recently in its development of weapons of mass destruction (WMDs).
Four of the 16 individuals were in charge of Pyongyang's nuclear and ballistic missile programs.
They included Ri Man-gon, who oversees development of military technologies as a director at the ruling Workers' Party.
The three others are Yu Chol-u, director of the National Aerospace Development Administration (NADA), Hyon Kwang-il, a senior official at NADA, and Choe Chun-sik, who headed North Korea's long-range missile program in 2013.
They will theoretically be barred from travelling to any U.N. member state.
The 12 entities included North Korea's government organizations, such as NADA, the Ministry of Atomic Energy Industry, the Academy of National Defense Sciences and the Reconnaissance General Bureau, which is in charge of intelligence operations.
Seoul is expected to add working-level officials under Ri's command as well as Room 39 and its officers.
Room 39, a secretive branch of the authoritarian regime, reports directly to Kim Jong-un about the use of money to develop WMDs.
It is suspected of running North Korean restaurants overseas and pocketing the wages of North Korean laborers who have been forcibly sent abroad, mostly as construction workers, to prop up the regime.
By Yi Whan-woo
The government today will unveil a list of additional North Korean officials and institutions that will be barred from trading with South Korean companies and banks, sources say.
South Korea will also freeze their assets here if there are any.
The measures are included in a set of the South's unilateral sanctions to be announced at 3 p.m. today to cut off the flow of cash into North Korea.
The North Korean figures and institutions subject to the South's own sanctions are separate from the 16 individuals and 12 entities blacklisted by the U.N Security Council in the latest resolution.
"The government's measures may not be so effective, considering North Korean individuals and entities may not have assets in the South and they do not have financial transactions with South Korean financial companies," a source said.
"But those measures will be meaningful in a way that the international community can take precautions. It is expected that other countries will take Seoul's measures into account and refrain from contacting targeted individuals and entities."
South Korea will also ban the entry of ships from other nations if the vessels have visited North Korea, or if the vessels are suspected of originating from the repressive state but are flying other countries' flags.
If imposed, the ban will be additional to Seoul's sanctions imposed on May 24, 2010 in retaliation for North Korea's sinking of the South Korean naval frigate Cheonan in March the same year.
Under the retaliatory measures, all North Korean-flagged vessels are prohibited from entering South Korean waters or making port calls here regardless of circumstances.
Meanwhile, speculation is growing that South Korea will scrap the so-called "Rajin-Hassan Project," a logistics project involving North Korea and Russia.
The project is aimed at importing Siberia-produced coal by transporting it by train between Russia's border town of Rajin and North Korea's port in Hassan and then loading the coal on to ships.
Before approval of the UNSC resolution Russia, a veto-wielding member of the U.N. Security Council, used its influence in the last minute to ensure that exports of Siberia-produced coals via Rajin would continue.
It is speculated Seoul's diplomatic ties with Moscow will deteriorate if the Korean government halts the project.
The latest U.N. resolution is aimed at putting further pressure on Pyongyang for carrying out its latest nuclear test and long-range rocket launch recently in its development of weapons of mass destruction (WMDs).
Four of the 16 individuals were in charge of Pyongyang's nuclear and ballistic missile programs.
They included Ri Man-gon, who oversees development of military technologies as a director at the ruling Workers' Party.
The three others are Yu Chol-u, director of the National Aerospace Development Administration (NADA), Hyon Kwang-il, a senior official at NADA, and Choe Chun-sik, who headed North Korea's long-range missile program in 2013.
They will theoretically be barred from travelling to any U.N. member state.
The 12 entities included North Korea's government organizations, such as NADA, the Ministry of Atomic Energy Industry, the Academy of National Defense Sciences and the Reconnaissance General Bureau, which is in charge of intelligence operations.
Seoul is expected to add working-level officials under Ri's command as well as Room 39 and its officers.
Room 39, a secretive branch of the authoritarian regime, reports directly to Kim Jong-un about the use of money to develop WMDs.
It is suspected of running North Korean restaurants overseas and pocketing the wages of North Korean laborers who have been forcibly sent abroad, mostly as construction workers, to prop up the regime.
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