Seoul announces additional sanctions on Pyongyang for missile tests

South Korea announced additional sanctions on North Korea in response to growing security threats from Pyongyang, highlighted by its long-range missile launch last month

South Korea on Friday announced additional sanctions on North Korea in response to growing security threats from Pyongyang, highlighted by its long-range missile launch last month, according to the Foreign Ministry in Seoul.

Seoul has decided to impose independent sanctions on eight individuals and seven institutions involved in the secretive regime's nuclear and missile development programs, Yonhap News Agency quoted the Ministry as saying.

Those added to the blacklist include officials at financial institutions related to the North's nuclear and missile programs, and those involved in illegal ship-to-ship transfers of sanctioned North Korean goods, it said in a press release.

They include six North Korean individuals from the North's Foreign Trade Bank of Korea, Korea Daesong Bank and Kumgang Group Bank.

The others are a Singaporean and a Taiwanese, Kwak Kee Seng and Chen Shih Huan, respectively.

The institutions are four North Korean trade and shipping companies, including Namgang Trading Corp., and three Singapore-based shipping firms.

The Ministry cited its resolve to deal resolutely with the North's saber-rattling, including the November 18 firing of an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), which poses a "serious threat" to the peace and stability of the peninsula and the international community.

It marked the South's second round of sanctions on the North since the launch of the conservative Yoon Suk-yeol administration in May.

Hours earlier, the US Department of Treasury said it has designated three senior North Korean members of the ruling Workers' Party as individuals connected to the country's weapons development program.

Following the South Korean announcement, Japan announced it has placed three institutions and one individual involved in the North's nuclear and missile programs under its own sanctions.

--IANS

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