TAIPEI, Taiwan – Japan said it will extend its ban on trade with North Korea for two more years as part of sanctions over Pyongyang’s nuclear weapons program and the unresolved abductions of Japanese nationals.
Under the current sanctions, Japan bans port entry by North Korea-registered vessels and ships that have made port in the country, as well as trade. The sanctions were due to expire on Sunday.
Japan’s Chief Cabinet Secretary, Yoshimasa Hayashi, cited Pyongyang’s nuclear weapons and missile development programs and the unresolved issue of its decades-old abduction of Japanese nationals as reasons for the extension.
“We’ve decided the extension after comprehensively examining these situations and the need to secure the implementation of U.N. Security Council sanctions resolutions,” he said.
The historical abductions remain a significant obstacle to normal diplomatic relations between North Korea and Japan.
Tokyo says it has confirmed the abduction of 17 Japanese citizens by North Korea in the 1970s and 1980s, to work as language teachers for North Korean spies. It says 12 are still in the North.
Pyongyang contends that of the 12, eight have died and four never entered North Korea. It insists there is no issue to be resolved.
Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba has vowed to prioritize the return of all Japanese nationals abducted by the North.
“The abduction issue, which is time-bound as the abductees and their families are aging, is a humanitarian issue, a violation of national sovereignty, and the most important task of the regime,” Ishiba told parliament in October shortly after he was elected as the country’s leader.
In recent months, North Korea has intensified its military activities, including multiple missile launches and advancements in its nuclear development program.
On March 10, Pyongyang fired several ballistic missiles into the Yellow Sea in response to military exercises between the U.S., South Korea and Japan.
Apart from that, the North announced the construction of a nuclear-powered submarine equipped with missile capabilities, a development that observers believe could significantly enhance its strategic deterrent capability.
Separately, Tokyo police referred two Japanese men to prosecutors Monday for allegedly providing their identification data to assist an individual believed to be a North Korean IT worker in fraudulently obtaining freelance work online.
Tokyo’s Metropolitan Police Department believes that the IT worker was involved in North Korea’s efforts to obtain foreign currency.
The two men in their 30s were charged with providing scans of their driver’s licenses and bank account details in 2020 so that the IT worker could register on the freelance work site and accept work assignments in their names, according to the police.
Remuneration for tasks undertaken by the IT worker posing as the two Japanese men was paid into the two men’s bank accounts, but was later transferred abroad at the instruction of the worker. The two men reportedly received about 10% of the revenue.
The IT worker communicated with the two Japanese men through social media, while data from the job-matching service’s website suggests access from North Korea, police said.
A U.N. Security Council panel of experts, which monitors sanctions against North Korea, has reported that IT workers in the country obfuscate their identities to accept online work and earn income to funnel into the development of nuclear and ballistic missiles.
In March last year, Japan’s National Police Agency warned businesses and organizations that North Korean IT workers may be impersonating Japanese citizens to earn income through online work.
Edited by Stephen Wright.