SKorea bares sanctions against Pyongyang

SEOUL: South Korea announced new unilateral sanctions against - dent Moon Jae-In—on Monday, a day before US President Donald Trump arrives in Seoul on an Asian tour dominated by the North’s nuclear program.

A total of 18 North Korean bankers stationed in China, Russia and Libya with suspected links to the regime’s weapons programs have been blacklisted, a statement posted on the South’s government website showed.

“Those individuals have worked overseas, representing North Korean banks and getting involved in supplying money needed to develop weapons of mass destruction,” Seoul’s foreign ministry said in a statement.

All 18 have already been sanctioned by the US, and the announcement came a day before Trump—who has accused South Korea’s dovish President Moon JaeIn of “appeasement”—was due to arrive in Seoul.

unilateral sanctions under Moon, peaceful resolution to the nuclear standoff and declared a willingness to visit Pyongyang under “the right circumstances.”

The move bars South Korean individuals and entities from transacting with those on the list. It will be largely symbolic given a lack of inter-Korean economic ties, but is likely to draw an angry response from Pyongyang.

It also follows a new round of sanctions adopted by the UN Security Council in September following the North’s sixth nuclear test recent months.