Japan imposes new sanctions on N. Korea

TOKYO: Japan froze the assets of 19 companies to step up pressure on North Korea to return Japanese citizens that it abducted in the 1970s and 1980s and to halt its nuclear weapons and missile development.

A Foreign Ministry official said the unilateral move shows Japan’s commitment to sanctions ahead of a UN Security Council meeting in New York to discuss the North Korea situation.

Japan has now frozen the assets of 103 companies and organisations and 108 individuals under either its own sanctions or Security Council resolutions. Of those, 56 groups and 62 individuals were unilateral.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said Japan will continue to put pressure on North Korea to seek a resolution to both the abductee and nuclear and missile issues.

North Korean agents abducted Japanese citizens to train spies to pass as Japanese.

Later yesterday, the United Nations’ independent investigator on human rights in North Korea, Tomas Ojea Quintana, met with the families of abducted Japanese citizens.

Quintana arrived in Tokyo on Thursday to discuss the issue with Japanese officials after a visit earlier this week to South Korea, where he investigated North Korean allegations that Seoul abducted 12 North Korean women from China.

Japan’s abduction issues minister, Katsunobu Kato, asked Quintana for his support, saying there is little time left for the ageing families of the victims. — AP