Unilateral Sanction Launched

Performing as a hardliner against a rogue state in the peninsula, Japanese government decided unilateral sanctions against North Korea, which had exercised nuclear test and launching of a ballistic missile. The measures included halting money transport or freezing assets. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe reiterates his determination to take uncompromising measures. So, what does that unilateral sanction for the despotic regime?

Abe presided a meeting of National Security Council on Wednesday and listed the sanctions against North Korea. According to the menu, Japanese government would prohibit money transfer amounting ¥100,000 or more from Japan to North Korea except humanitarian assistance. Not only ships with flag of North Korea, but other countries’ ship that had called at a port of North Korea would not be allowed entering Japanese port.

Exchange of persons would also be regulated. If a foreign engineer on nuclear or missile technology traveled to North Korea, he/she would not be able to reenter Japan. Target range of asset freezing would be expanded. Immigration of North Korean citizens would generally be prohibited and reentering of Korean Japanese who were affiliated to General Association of Korean Residents would be more difficult.

Abe looked to be busy in advertising his determination against the North. “We decided firm sanctions against North Korea. To settle abduction issue and nuclear and missile problem, we will cooperate with international society,” told Abe after the meeting of NSC. One government official told Asahi Shimbun that new sanction must be the hardest imaginable measures.

It is inevitable that North Korea will take countermeasures against Japan. The likeliest one would be no answer to Japan’s request for research of Japanese abductees in North Korea. “Our attitude for making best effort to return the abductees back home will be unshaken,” told Chief Cabinet Secretary, Yoshihide Suga. But, as long as those abductees are on the hand of North Korea, new sanction will make the effort difficult.

Meanwhile, South Korea announced new sanction against the North. Government of Republic of Korea issued a statement that it would stop all operations in Kaesong Industrial Complex. Over fifty thousand North Korean people were working for 124 South Korean companies in Kaesong. Although Japan’s sanction can be working with ROK government, the impact of Japanese sanction itself should not be fatal for the North. Power of Japan is not so big as what Abe has been appealing.