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Effects of measures remain questionable
By Kim Hyo-jin
The South Korean government issued its own sanctions against North Korea on Sunday over its nuclear and missile provocations ahead of U.S. President Donald Trump's visit to the country.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs unveiled a list of 18 North Korean individuals subject to the unilateral sanctions, saying they will take effect Monday.
It marks Seoul's first unilateral sanctions against the nuclear weapon-seeking country since President Moon Jae-in took power in May.
However, the sanctions could only remain ineffective and symbolic because the two Koreas have already cut almost all exchanges.
The ministry singled out the figures who had been blacklisted by the U.N. Security Council (UNSC) for being linked to North Korea's financial networks.
The selection came in line with sanctions by the international community, according to the ministry.
"They are the executives of North Korean banks overseas suspected of funneling money for the development of weapons of mass destruction for their government," the ministry said.
"The measure is expected to help cut the North's illegal financial resource and raise awareness of the dangers of transactions with the blacklisted individuals at home and abroad."
The sanctions will freeze property of the sanctioned individuals within South Korean jurisdiction and ban any of their transactions with South Korean banks.
The ministry added the government will continue working on resolving the North's nuclear issue peacefully by making the North come to the dialogue table through sanctions and pressure.
The move is interpreted as a show of tightened coordination between Seoul and Washington on the North Korea policy.
A senior Cheong Wa Dae official hinted Friday that the move was facilitated at the request of Washington. "The U.S. called on our government to impose additional sanctions as they will carry a symbolic significance regardless of their effectiveness," the official said.
Moon earlier told his security officials to consider the country's own sanctions against Pyongyang during an NSC meeting convened immediately after the North's launch of the intercontinental ballistic missile Hwasong-14, July 28.
The impact of the sanctions, however, remains questionable as South Korean banks have had no transactions with North Korean individuals or groups since the May 24 sanctions, a package of economic penalties on Pyongyang imposed by then-President Lee Myung-bak in 2010 in retaliation for the North's torpedo attack on the Navy corvette Cheonan, which killed 46 South Korean sailors.
The 2010 sanctions banned all South Korean visits to North Korea aside from the Gaeseong Industrial Complex, all North Korean ships from entering South Korean waters and inter-Korean trade and new investments in North Korea.
While maintaining the basic structure of the May 24 sanctions, the Park Geun-hye government issued a series of unilateral sanctions following the North's fourth and fifth nuclear tests last year.
It then blacklisted 79 individuals and 69 organizations involved in illegal activities of the North Korean regime.
"The sanction came two days before Trump's visit as it could not be delayed any further," said Nam Sung-wook, a unification and diplomacy professor at Korea University, shedding light on the earlier call by the U.S.
"It has no effectiveness whatsoever to contain the North's provocations as it is a mere revival of the existing UNSC sanctions. Having said that, an announcement of unilateral sanctions itself is symbolic."
Attention is rising over how North Korea would react while Trump is on a state visit to South Korea from Nov. 7 to 8 during which the North Korea issue will top the agenda.
It took a hostile stance, saying the Moon government is about to welcome a "war lunatic" in an article of Tongil Sinbo, a North Korean weekly propaganda magazine, Thursday.
It called Trump's visit a "move to propel a nuclear war on the Korean Peninsula."
North Korea watchers forecast Pyongyang may step back and wait for the right moment to relaunch its verbal attack on the U.S.
"Pyongyang would stay silent while the U.S. leader is at the approximate distance but will soon release harsh rhetoric probably through the North's state-run Korean Central News Agency," Nam said, referring to its previous inaction during U.S. presidents' visits to South Korea and the South Korea-U.S. joint military exercises.
