U.N. committee sanctions 3 N. Korean firms

(ATTN: UPDATES with N. Korean envoy's remarks, other details throughout)
NEW YORK, April 24 (Yonhap) -- The United Nations imposed financial and trade
sanctions on three North Korean companies Friday in the wake of North Korea's
rocket launch in early April.
The companies are the Korea Mining Development Trading Corporation, the Korea
Ryonbong General Corporation and Tanchon Commercial Bank, said Turkish U.N.
Ambassador Baki Ilkin, who heads the Security Council's sanctions committee.
The committee also banned U.N. member states from trading in dual-use items
related to the production of ballistic missiles and other weapons of mass
destruction, officials said.
The sanctions decision comes nearly two weeks after the 15-member U.N. Security
Council adopted a presidential statement to rebuke North Korea's April 5 rocket
launch and call for the committee to list North Korean firms and goods to be
sanctioned.
Pak Tok-hun, deputy chief of North Korea's permanent mission to the U.N. in New
York, reacted angrily, saying North Korea will not accept any decision from the
Security Council.
"The peaceful use of space is a right which cannot be deprived of any country,"
he said. "The recent activity of the U.N. Security Council shows that we cannot
expect anything from it unless it is democratized."
In announcing the designation of the three North Korean firms subject to
sanctions, the U.N. said in a statement that the Korea Mining Development Trading
Corporation is a "primary arms dealer and main exporter of goods and equipment
related to ballistic missiles and conventional weapons."
Korea Ryonbong General Corporation is a "defense conglomerate specializing in
acquisition for DPRK defense industries and support to that country's
military-related sales," the statement said, referring to North Korea by its
official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.
"Tanchon Commercial Bank is the main DPRK financial entity for sales of
conventional arms, ballistic missiles, and goods related to the assembly and
manufacture of such weapons," said the statement.
The three are a compromise between the U.S. and Japan, which had presented more
than 10 North Korean firms, and China and Russia, which wanted to minimize the
number so as not to provoke North Korea further, informed sources said.
North Korea has threatened to boycott the six-party nuclear talks with South
Korea, the U.S., China, Japan and Russia, restart its nuclear facilities being
disabled under a six-party deal and strengthen its nuclear arsenal.
Pyongyang insists the launch was part of its space program to send a satellite
into space, while Washington and its allies believe it was a disguised ballistic
missile test.
The presidential statement, the outcome of veto-wielding China's opposition to
any legally binding resolution, has set Friday as the deadline for the committee
to present a list of North Korean firms and goods to be subjected to trade and
arms sanctions under Resolution 1718, which was adopted after North Korea's
ballistic missile and nuclear tests in 2006.
The resolution has since been neglected due to lack of proper implementation
measures.
hdh@yna.co.kr
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