Last update - 00:00 11/10/2006
Report: Japan to impose own sanctions on North Korea
By News Agencies
Japan is set to impose its own sanctions on North Korea over its declared
nuclear weapons test, a news report said Wednesday.
The government will convene an emergency security meeting Wednesday evening to decide on further sanctions against the North, including banning all North Korean ships from Japanese ports, public broadcaster NHK said.
An imposition of strict sanctions on North Korea would be tantamount to an act of war, a North Korean official stationed in Beijing told Yonhap news agency earlier Wednesday.
"If all-out sanctions are implemented, we will take it as a declaration of war," the official said, when asked about possible UN Security Council sanctions in response to the North's reported nuclear test Monday.
Yonhap did not identify the official.
Meanwhile, South Korea's defense minister said Wednesday that Seoul will enlarge its conventional arsenal to deal with a potentially nuclear-armed North Korea.
"If North Korea really has the [nuclear] capabilities, we will improve and enlarge the number of conventional weapons as long as it doesn't violate the principle of denuclearization," Yoon Kwang-ung told parliament.
"We will supplement [our ability] to conduct precision strikes against storage facilities and intercept delivery means, while also improving the system of having military units and individuals defend themselves," he said.
China and Russia, which both border North Korea, met other veto-holding members of the UN Security Council on Tuesday to discuss a range of sanctions proposed by the United States and Japan to pressure Pyongyang to abandon its nuclear program.
"The more they press us, the stronger our response will be," the official said.
Additional nuclear tests will be carried out depending on political and diplomatic judgements, the official said, adding he had no information about a second nuclear test.
In a report on its official media, North Korea also said it would not bend in the face of sanctions.
"Our enemies think they can do something to us through an economic blockade and psychological tricks, but it will turn out to be nothing more than a silly delusion," its KCNA news agency reported a state newspaper as saying.