Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe (Reuters)
Japan
says it is imposing sanctions on North Korea after a satellite launch
seen by Washington and its allies, including Tokyo, as cover for
development of ballistic missile technology that could be used to
deliver a nuclear weapon.
The news on Wednesday (local time) followed South
Korea's announcement that it would suspend operations at a jointly run
factory park just inside North Korea, in a move to cut off an important
source of revenue for the impoverished North.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told a news
conference that remittances of money to North Korea would be forbidden,
except for sums less than Y100,000 ($A1,233) intended for humanitarian
purposes.
Japan will also tighten curbs on travel with North
Korea, and ban all port calls by North Korean ships, even for
humanitarian purposes, as well as visits by third-country ships that
have made port calls on the North.
"North
Korea conducted the fourth nuclear test in defiance of calls for
self-restraint from the international community, and then pushed ahead
with the launch of a ballistic missile," Suga told a news conference.
"This
poses a direct and serious threat to the safety of our country,
significantly hurts the peace and safety of northeast Asia and the
international community, and is absolutely unacceptable."
Japan
eased some sanctions on North Korea in July 2014 in return for
Pyongyang reopening an investigation into the fate of Japanese citizens
abducted decades ago by North Korean agents to help train spies,
although little progress has been seen since.
Despite the fresh sanctions, Japan intends to keep open its dialogue with North Korea to resolve the abduction issue, Suga said.
Pyongyang
admitted in 2002 to kidnapping 13 Japanese citizens decades earlier.
Five abductees and their families later returned to Japan but Tokyo
wants to know the fate of the remaining eight, who Pyongyang has said
are dead, and others Japan believes were also kidnapped.
AAP
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