PHUKET, Thailand — Japan announced Thursday it would freeze assets of North Koreans in compliance with new UN sanctions for their links to Pyongyang's nuclear programme, an official said Thursday.
The action against five individuals, four companies and one government bureau will take effect on Friday, said Japanese foreign ministry spokesman Kazuo Kodama.
"On July 24, the Japanese government will take measures to freeze assets of these entities and individuals," Kodama told reporters on the sidelines of a regional security meeting in the Thai resort island of Phuket.
"These five individuals will be barred from entry into Japan as well from any transit visits to Japan," he added.
The entities include Pyongyang-based companies and the North Korean atomic energy bureau as well as their representatives.
The UN Security Council on July 16 added the five people and five entities to an expanded sanctions list after weeks of bargaining and this is the first time Japan has confirmed its compliance.
The measures were mandated under a UN Security Council resolution adopted June 12, which imposed sanctions on the Stalinist state following its May 25 underground nuclear test.
That resolution also called for beefed-up inspections of air, sea and land shipments going to and from North Korea, and an expanded arms embargo.
Also in Phuket on Thursday, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton urged Southeast Asian and other nations to help enforce sanctions against North Korea to encourage the state to eliminate its nuclear programme.
Kodama said his government "strongly requests North Korea to accept the resolute message of the international community".
"Please understand that this is the most serious issue on security in East Asia," he said, noting Japan's potential vulnerability if North Korea were to develop an atomic bomb and the capability to deliver it.
"If they succeed in militarising their nuclear warhead to be attached to their ballistic missile, Japan will be an easy target. So we really hope the international community... understands our sense of threat, our sense of insecurity," he said.
Japan is the only country in the world to have experienced nuclear attacks, when the United States dropped atomic weapons on the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki during World War II.
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