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Four N. Korean officials blacklisted by UN council

March 2, 2016
(Yonhap)

(Yonhap)

By Yi Whan-woo

The U.N. Security Council (UNSC) has blacklisted four senior North Korean officials in charge of nuclear and ballistic missile programs as the council is set to pass a new resolution on sanctions against the isolated state.

The four officials include Ri Man-gon, who oversees development of military technologies as a director at the ruling Workers’ Party, according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Wednesday.

They will theoretically be barred from travelling to any member state of the U.N.

The three others are Yu Chol-u, director of the National Aerospace Development Administration (NADA), Hyon Kwang-il, a senior official at NADA, and Choe Chun-sik, who headed North Korea’s long-range missile program in 2013.

“A Worker’s Party director is equivalent to a ministerial-level official in other countries,” said An Chan-il, head of the World Institute for North Korea Studies. “I’d say the UNSC targeted the right man to punish North Korea for pursuing military ambitions.”

He said Ri was among nuclear scientists and officials who appeared in a photo with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un released in January to commemorate Pyongyang’s latest nuclear test.

Ri and the three other targeted officials were among 17 individuals and 12 entities — all from North Korea — that were included in an original text of a bill drafted by the United States and China and circulated to the UNSC last week.

The proposed bill is aimed at toughening sanctions against North Korea in response to its nuclear test, Jan. 6, and satellite launch, Feb. 7.

Russia, a veto-wielding UNSC member, asked for the removal of one official from the text as a precondition to putting the draft resolution to a vote, citing its business relationship with him, according to diplomatic sources.

It also opposed banning the supply of aviation fuel to North Korea in a package of measures included in the resolution, according to Japan’s NHK.

There is an exception for transshipments of Russian coal via a railroad between Russia’s eastern border town of Khasan and Rajin, a North Korean port. The railroad opened in 2013 as part of a joint logistics project involving the two Koreas and Russia.

The resolution authorizes mandatory inspections of all cargo to and from North Korea for the first time.

It also proposed banning exports of coal, iron, gold, titanium and other rare minerals from North Korea, as well as supplying fuel to the reclusive state.

The 2016 resolution is aimed at widening punitive measures on Pyongyang to an unprecedented scale in addition to a set of four past UNSC sanctions — 1718, 1874, 2097 and 2094.

They were imposed between 2006 and 2013 when North Korea carried out three nuclear tests as well as satellite launches, which are regarded as tests of intercontinental ballistic missile technology.

The UNSC resolution this year targets more individuals and entities than previous ones, according to diplomatic sources.

A total of 29 individuals and 32 entities linked to North Korea’s development of weapons of mass destruction are now subject to the UNSC sanctions.

The 2013 resolution blacklisted two North Korean entities — Tanchon Commercial Bank and Korea Mining Development Trading Corporation (KOMID) — for their overseas activities related to Pyongyang’s nuclear and missile programs, but fell short of disclosing the names of countries where they been operating.

The 2016 resolution then blacklisted six officials from each bank and KOMID, claiming they had been working in Iran, Russia, Syria and Vietnam.

The 12 entities this year include NADA, the Academy of National Defense Sciences, Chongchongang Shipping Co. and the Ministry of Atomic Energy Industry.

The Reconnaissance General Bureau, which carries out intelligence operations, was also on the list.

The commercial entities will be barred from engaging in financial and trading activities worldwide.

However, the sanctions imposed on government organizations are “nominal,” said Yang Moo-jin, a professor at the University of North Korean Studies.

“Such sanctions should be interpreted as a snub in a symbolic way and as there is not much the international community can do concerning practical measures against the North Korean government,” he said.