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By Park Byung-soo, staff writer
The United Nations Security Council (UNSC) stated on Wednesday that it had decided to extend sanctions to three more North Korean institutions and companies, bringing the total number of sanctioned bodies from eight to eleven.
The UNSC’s statement indicated that North Korea’s Amroggang Development Banking Corporation, Green Pine Conglomerate and Korea Heungjin Trading Company had been selected will be subject to sanctions. The overseas assets of these entities will be frozen and financial trading with them prohibited.
Wednesday’s statement was the result of an order issued by the UNSC on April 16 to its sanctions committee to increase the scope of sanctions against the North within 15 days and report back. The order was motivated by North Korea’s attempted rocket launch. The North has so far protested the actions of the UNSC, while claiming that the rocket was launched for peaceful purposes.
The UNSC’s press release indicates that Green Pine Associated Corporation, which currently operates under the guise of a corporation trading in essential everyday goods, is suspected of having taken over many of the activities of Korea Mining Development Trading Corporation (KOMID), the North’s main exporter of goods and equipment related to ballistic missiles and conventional weapons. The Security Council explained that Green Pine is a military business specialized in the production of maritime military craft and armaments, such as submarines, military boats, torpedoes and missile systems. It also stated that Korea Heungjin Trading Company was used by KOMID for trading purposes such as supplying missile components to Iranian missile company Shahid Hemmat Industrial Group (SHIG).
The UNSC judged Amroggang Development Banking Corporation to be an affiliate of Tanchon Commercial Bank, which supplied financial services related to ballistic missile transactions between KOMID and SHIG. KOMID, Tanchon Commercial Bank and SHIG are all already subject to UNSC sanctions.
South Korea, the United States, Japan and the European Union cumulatively submitted around 40 North Korean firms for consideration the by UNSC’s sanctions comittee. Opposition from China resulted in only three being selected. China originally recognized only two entities as candidates for extended sanctions, but is believed to have conceded to the inclusion of one more.
In 2009, the UNSC, citing North Korea’s rocket launch and nuclear test that year, imposed sanctions on eight North Korean entities, including the General Bureau of Atomic Energy, and on five individuals, including GBAE head Ri Je-son.
At an International Atomic Energy Agency meeting in Vienna, the five permanent members of the UN Security Council urged North Korea to refrain from any new nuclear tests amid speculation Pyongyang may soon carry out such an explosion.　“We...call on [North Korea] to refrain from further actions which may cause grave security concerns in the region, including any nuclear tests,” said a joint statement by the United States, France, Russia, China and Britain. The statement also expressed “serious concern” over last month’s attempted rocket launch by North Korea.
“We reaffirm our firm support for the resumption of the six party talks at an appropriate time,” Thursday’s statement added.
　
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