Japan to Impose Additional Sanctions Against N. Korea

TOKYO (Reuters) —
President Donald Trump (C) with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe (R) and South Korean President Moon Jae-at a July meeting, in Hamburg. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

Japan will impose additional sanctions against North Korea following the reclusive country’s repeated missile launches and unresolved abduction issue, its top government spokesman said on Friday.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told reporters that Japan would freeze the assets of six more organizations and two more individuals linked to North Korea. He said they included four Chinese entities and one Chinese individual and two Namibian entities.

In Beijing, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying expressed “strong dissatisfaction and resolute opposition” to the Japanese sanctions.

The United States on Tuesday imposed new North Korea-related sanctions, targeting Chinese and Russian firms and individuals for supporting Pyongyang’s weapons programs, including a Namibia-based subsidiary of a Chinese company and a North Korean entity operating in Namibia.

Asked what message Japan was sending with the additional sanctions, Suga said it was important to observe the U.N. Security Council resolutions.

“It is extremely important to exert pressure in this form while acting in concert with the United States and South Korea,” he said.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has ordered more solid-fuel rocket engines, state media reported on Wednesday, as he pursues nuclear and missile programs amid a standoff with Washington.

Responding to Japan’s latest steps, China’s Foreign Ministry spokeswoman said Beijing opposed any unilateral sanctions outside the United Nations Security Council framework, especially those targeting Chinese entities and people.

Japan’s actions “gravely harm China’s interests and judicial sovereignty, and create new political obstacles to improving China-Japan relations,” Hua told a daily news briefing.

“China demands that Japan immediately cease with the relevant mistaken methods. If Japan remains obstinately on this course, it must bear the consequences.”

China has signed up for increasingly tough U.N. sanctions against North Korea, and promised to fully and effectively enforce them.

But China has been angered by unilateral sanctions placed against Chinese companies and individuals by the United States in particular, saying that only China has the right to target those in the country who may illegally be aiding Pyongyang.

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