LOC11:48
08:48 GMT
TOKYO, March 17 (KUNA) -- Japan on Friday expanded its sanctions on North Korea in response to Pyongyang's test-firing an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) the previous day, the Foreign Ministry said.
The new measures, approved at a Cabinet meeting earlier in the day, added the freezing of assets held in Japan by three North Korean individuals for their involvement in North Korea's nuclear and missile development programs, the ministry said in a press release.
With the additional sanctions, Japan now designates a total of 124 individuals and 137 entities in its North Korea-linked sanction list, according to the ministry.
The move came after Pyongyang launched ICBM on Thursday, which traveled about 1,000 km on a lofted trajectory and reached a maximum altitude of over 6,000 km. It also launched an ICBM on Feb. 18.
"North Korea is continuing a series of provocative acts with high frequency, which are serious and imminent threats to Japan's security, and threaten the peace and security of the region and the international community. Such actions must never be tolerated," Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno told a news conference.
"Japan strongly urges North Korea to take concrete actions toward resolving various issues, including its nuclear and missile development programs as well as the abductions of Japanese nationals (in the 1970s and 1980s)," the top government spokesman stressed.
"We will work in close cooperation within the Japan-US and Japan-US-South Korea frameworks, as well as in collaboration with wider international community for the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula," Matsuno added.
Japan first imposed the sanctions in 2006 following the North's first nuclear test and test-launch of ballistic missiles over the Sea of Japan the same year. (end)
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