Japanese To Slap Sanctions On North Korea

Saying openly that dialog alone will not work, Japan is set to slap a new group of economic sanctions on North Korea. Besides the missile program that North Korea continues to provoke Japan and others with, there is also the lingering issue of the Japanese citizens that were kidnapped by the North Koreans.

The sanctions — called for in a U.N. Security Council resolution that denounced the missile launches — would ban withdrawals of money and overseas remittances by groups and individuals suspected of links to North Korean weapons programs.

"As it has become obvious that the problem cannot be resolved only through dialogue, pressure is unavoidable," Chief Cabinet Secretary Shinzo Abe said Monday on NTV network. "In order to get them to change their behavior, we cannot help but apply the pressure."

The planned sanctions include measures targeting 12 groups and an individual that officials say have links to North Korea's weapons development programs, according to Japanese media reports.

Tokyo stepped up trade restrictions on North Korea in July following Pyongyang's test-firing of seven missiles, including one long-range rocket, into the waters between Japan and the Korean Peninsula. The launches drew international condemnation.

Communist North Korea's moribund economy is heavily dependent on cash infusions from a large community of sympathetic ethnic Koreans in Japan.

Japan and North Korea have no diplomatic relations, but the two have maintained limited economic ties. Following the latest sanctions, trade between the two plunged nearly 40 percent, the government recently announced.

If the nationalist party wins the upcoming elections (as appears to be widely expected) they have promised to appoint a cabinet level office to address the issue of the kidnapped citizens.