The ordinance allows authorities to do more thorough searches of cargo heading for North Korean ports, Yomiuri Shimbun reports, while adding teeth to some of the UN Security Council resolutions sanctioning North Korea’s nuclear buildup.
Current policy lists about 100 items that are not legally allowed to enter North Korea as they might be used to facilitate missile building, testing or research. Like putting a rock under a waterfall, the regulation changed how the flow occurred but did not alter where the water ended up, and Pyongyang officials and its trading partners adapted quickly to the rule. They began taking apart weapons and other prohibited items and sending them as parts or raw materials to avert confiscation.
The new policy gives inspectors more leeway under a “catch all” provision to ban the transport of any goods that might be used for the missile program.
“We are determined to firmly carry out UN sanctions on human rights issues that include nuclear weapons, missiles and abductions, we’d like to continue to deal with this matter,” a Japanese official told reporters on Tuesday morning.
