The government presented a list Tuesday of 24 luxury items that will be banned from export to North Korea, hoping to deal another blow to the Kim Jong Il regime following the country's Oct. 9 nuclear test.</PARAGRAPH> <PARAGRAPH>The list is based on U.N. Security Council resolution 1718, which calls on member states to halt North Korea-bound exports of goods related to weapons of mass destruction as well as luxury goods.</PARAGRAPH> <PARAGRAPH>The 24 items include beef, tuna meat, caviar and its substitutes, liquor, cars, motorcycles, motorboats, yachts, watches, cameras, audio and video devices, movie and music software, jewelry, carpets and tobacco.</PARAGRAPH> <PARAGRAPH>Kim is believed to favor such items for his personal use as well as to give away as rewards for loyalty among Pyongyang's power elite, government officials said.</PARAGRAPH> <PARAGRAPH>'We have –

goods that are likely to be used by (government and party) executives, and those they are likely to give to their subordinates," Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuhisa Shiozaki told a news conference.

"North Korea's leaders need to be sent a strong message from the international community" and abide by the U.N. resolution, Shiozaki said. The resolution, issued in response to the nuclear test, demands that Pyongyang abandon its atomic weapons program.

The 24 luxury items accounted for 16 percent of the 6.88 billion yen worth of goods Japan exported to North Korea in 2005, according to Shiozaki.

Government officials said the list is based in part on information gleaned from books written by Kenji Fujimoto, who worked as Kim's personal chef of Japanese cuisine from August 1987 to April 2001. Fujimoto was a close observer of the dictator's private life.