Seoul slaps sanctions on N. Korean firms for missile test

By Koh Byung-joon
SEOUL, June 9 (Yonhap) -- South Korea has imposed financial sanctions on three
North Korean companies for a long-range rocket launch that Pyongyang conducted in
April in defiance of repeated warnings by the international community, Seoul
officials said Tuesday.
Under the sanctions, enforced as of June 1, the three North Korean firms are
prohibited from doing any kind of business with South Korean companies and their
assets here can be frozen, according to the Ministry of Strategy and Finance.
The three are Korea Mining Development Trading Corporation, Tanchon Commercial
Bank and Korea Ryongbong General Corporation, all of whom are suspected of having
ties with the North's missile and nuclear programs.
The move is meant as a follow-up measure to similar sanctions brought against
those firms by the United Nations on April 24, in the wake of Pyongyang's
long-range rocket launch on April 5. North Korea insists the launch sent a
satellite into orbit, but its neighbors say it was a cover for a missile test.
No South Korean companies currently maintain business relations with any of the
three North Korean firms. None of the North Korean firms hold any assets in the
South, either, the ministry said.
"We decided to follow suit from June after the United Nations Security Council
imposed sanctions on the North Korean firms in April," a finance ministry
official said. "There are no assets of theirs here and no South Korean firms
doing business with them but we took the action as a precautionary measure."
This is the first time that South Korea has imposed financial sanctions on a
North Korean company in relation to Pyongyang's ballistic activity, the ministry
said.
The ministry said that it will consider taking additional measures if the U.N.
comes up with separate actions against the North for conducting its second
nuclear test on May 25.
Last week, South Korean Vice Finance Minister Hur Kyung-wook and Stewart Levey,
Washington's under secretary of Treasury in charge of issues of terrorism and
financing terrorism movements, met in Seoul and promised to cooperate and share
information in tackling money laundering activities.
kokobj@yna.co.kr
(END)