U.N. panel agrees to blacklist 3 N. Korean firms

UNITED NATIONS — Three major North Korean companies were targeted for new U.N. sanctions Friday in response to the communist nation’s April 5 rocket launch.

The decision by the U.N. Security Council’s sanctions committee for North Korea will require nations that have dealings with the companies to freeze their assets.

“This update includes some of the latest technologies relevant to ballistic missile programs. The committee has also agreed to designate three entities to be subject to the measures, namely an asset freeze,” said Turkish Ambassador Baki Ilkin.

The companies are Korea Mining Development Trading Corp. and Korea Ryongbong General Corp., both of which were previously sanctioned for suspected involvement in ballistic missile transactions, and Tanchon Commercial Bank, which managed the transaction funds.

That is likely to draw new protests from North Korea, which last week expelled U.N. nuclear monitors, vowed to restart its atomic program and quit nuclear disarmament negotiations to protest the council’s condemnation of its rocket launch.

The North calls the rebuke unfair because the April 5 rocket was carrying a satellite, but the U.S., Japan and other nations believe it was a cover to test technology for long-range military missiles.

The Security Council adopted a resolution in 2006 barring North Korea from working on long-range missiles and nuclear weapons.

While the committee did not name other companies, the 2006 resolution allows for subsidiaries of the three companies to be targeted. Those include at least eight subsidiaries that the U.S. had wanted to be explicitly named in the asset freeze, diplomats said.

The U.S. mission to the United Nations said it welcomed the committee’s action and called it “a serious and credible response” to the missile launch.

Japan had proposed an additional three major North Korean companies to the sanctions committee, which is made up of all 15 nations on the Security Council.

The U.S., Japan, South Korea and other nations seeking a stern response to North Korea ran into opposition from China and Russia, which as two of the council’s five permanent members have the power to veto actions.

During a visit to South Korea, Russia’s foreign minister on Friday repeated his country’s opposition to sanctioning North Korea for its rocket launch and called for efforts to revive stalled international talks on ending Pyongyang’s nuclear arms programs.

“Sanctions are not constructive,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said at a news conference with his South Korean counterpart, Yu Myung-hwan.

Lavrov flew to Seoul failing during a two-day trip to Pyongyang to persuade North Korean officials to end their boycott of the nuclear negotiations, which have been deadlocked since December.

He called on the countries involved in the talks — the U.S., China, Russia, Japan, South Korea and North Korea — to create conditions necessary for resumption of the talks. The nations should “honor their obligations,” Lavrov said.

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