South Korea on Thursday confirmed it would implement expanded United Nations sanctions on North Korea, despite dire warnings from Pyongyang about the consequences.
The country's finance ministry said restrictions on the six parties named in the new resolution will go into effect next week. It said there was never any doubt that Seoul, which had pushed for even harsher sanctions, would implement the U.N. measures.
The sanctions, affecting an additional six North Korean organizations, were ordered last month in response to the North's long-range rocket launch in December. North Korea promptly condemned the act threatened South Korea with unspecified dire consequences if it implemented the new measures. Pyongyang also declared that a 2005 document on North Korea's nuclear disarmament is void and threatened to carry out another nuclear test.
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Thursday called on Pyongyang to abide by all the relevant U.N. resolutions as well as the joint statement on denuclearization, signed in 2005 by six parties including North Korea. Speaking to a small group of U.N.- based correspondents in his office, Mr. Ban urged the communist country to avoid any actions that could increase tensions on the Korean Peninsula.
The U.N. chief said he had discussed North Korea's nuclear threat with "key countries." The United States, Russia, China, Japan and South Korea are involved in the talks with North Korea on closing its nuclear programs in exchange for aid and energy.
North Korea abandoned those talks in 2009 to protest international condemnation of its long-range missile tests.
Some information for this report provided by AFP.