South Korea Initiates Penalties Against D.P.R.K.

North Koreans involved in the country’s nuclear program are now prohibited from entering South Korea, Seoul said today as it began to implement penalties in response to Pyongyang’s recent atomic weapon test (see GSN, Oct. 25).

The move goes beyond the trade and financial sanctions specified in the U.N. Security Council resolution that followed the test, Reuters reported.

“The government will ban the passage and stay (in the South) of persons and their family designated by (U.N. Security Council) sanctions committee,” said Unification Minister Lee Jong-seok.

Seoul also plans to search North Korean ships that arrive at South Korean ports, as allowed by a maritime agreement between the two nations.  He did not address the potential suspension of two cross-border commercial projects, Reuters reported.

Pyongyang indicated yesterday that it would retaliate should Seoul impose penalties in response to the Oct. 9 North Korean nuclear test.

U.S. President George W. Bush dismissed the threat.

“The leader of North Korea likes to threaten,” he said yesterday at a press conference.  “What he’s doing is just testing the will of the five countries that are working together to convince him there is a better way forward for his people” (Reuters/New York Times, Oct. 26).

The Bush administration has maintained its support for the six-nation negotiations on North Korea’s nuclear program, despite increasing calls for officials from Washington to meet directly with their counterparts from Pyongyang.

One expert said the format of the talks might matter less than what the White House is willing to offer to curb Pyongyang’s program, the Associated Press reported.

Offering complete normalization of relations across the diplomatic and economic spheres “would at least smoke out the North Koreans,” said Ted Galen Carpenter, vice president for foreign policy studies at the Cato Institute.

“If they turned that down it would be pretty clear Pyongyang is determined to be a nuclear power, whatever is offered,” he said.

The other nations involved in the six-party talks support bilateral negotiations between North Korea and the United States, said nonproliferation expert Joseph Cirincione, senior vice president for national security and international policy at the Center for American Progress.

“They all recognize that is the only way this crisis is going to be resolved,” he said.  “North Korea gets the respect it craves, and we get an end to the program.  That deal is waiting to be made if we would just stop squabbling [over] how many chairs are at the table” (Barry Schweid, Associated Press I/NASDAQ.com, Oct. 26).

Japanese officials hope to meet with representatives from South Korea and the United States in order to finalize a single stand on the North Korea nuclear issue, AP reported.

The meeting could happen next month in Seoul, Kyodo News reported.  It would pave the way for talks later in November involving China and Russia, the other nations in the six-party talks.

Tokyo and Washington have been more publicly aggressive about imposing sanctions on Pyongyang than Seoul.  The meeting is intended to boost cooperation among the three nations, Kyodo reported.  Japan wants the three nations to restate their belief in the multilateral negotiations (Hans Greimel, Associated Press II/Yahoo!News, Oct. 25).

A Japanese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman today denied the Kyodo report, according to AP.

South Korean officials, however, indicated that such a meeting could still occur.

“The idea is still alive, but no specific moves are under way,” said Foreign Ministry spokesman Choo Kyu-ho (Hans Greimel, Associated Press III/ABC News, Oct. 26).

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