TMCnet News

section:asia
[March 12, 2006]

section:asia


(Taiwan News Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge)allowing Tokyo to impose economic sanctions on North Korea, to suspend remittances and trade and take other steps to restrict the flow of money and goods.

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, who has held two summit meetings with North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, has so far opted for dialogue and remains cautious about sanctions.

But his right-hand man, top government spokesman Shinzo Abe, said last month that he felt a greater need to pressure Pyongyang to resolve the abduction feud.

He said, however, that economic sanctions were a final form of pressure.

Pyongyang has repeatedly said it would regard imposition of sanctions as a "declaration of war" and has threatened to exclude Japan from six-party talks on ending its nuclear arms programs.

Meanwhile, North Korea has postponed minister-level talks with Seoul citing a major joint exercise by U.S. and South Korean troops scheduled later this month, South Korea's Yonhap News reported yesterday.

Pyongyang's minister-equivalent chief delegate, Cabinet Councillor Kwon Ho-ung, has notified Seoul's unification minister Lee Jong-seok that the talks would be postponed to April, Yonhap reported citing the North's official media KCNA.

North Korea has criticized the joint exercise by the United States and South Korea, designed to coordinate defenses of the southern half of the peninsula, as a dry run for an invasion.

"Hostile war training and peaceful dialogue cannot go together," Kwon was quoted as saying in the message sent to Lee.

The delay comes as six-party talks on ending the North's nuclear programs have hit a snag over a U.S. crackdown on firms Washington suspects of helping Pyongyang in counterfeiting and other illicit activities.

Past ministerial meetings between the two Koreas, which technically remain in war, have produced deals covering economic assistance, mining and humanitarian cooperation.

Washington said it suspects North Korea of being involved in counterfeiting, money laundering and the drug trade, which it says have helped Pyongyang fund its nuclear weapons programs.

caption: date:2006-03-12 Copyright 2006 Taiwan News

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