Japan has extended economic sanctions against North Korea for six months following their April 13 expiration, marking the third time that the sanctions have been renewed. The extension is unavoidable since there has been no progress in the issue of the abduction of Japanese nationals by North Korea, and the North has failed to fulfill its obligation to provide a complete and accurate declaration of its all nuclear activities by the end of 2007.
It also must be noted that North Korea has recently carried out provocative acts against South Korea. Pyongyang has increased its criticism of South Korean conservative President Lee Myung Bak, who calls for reciprocity in North-South relations. It expelled South Korean officials working at the jointly operated industrial project in Kaeson and test-fired several short-range ship-to-ship missiles. Pyongyang must realize that a policy of provocation will never produce desirable effects.
Japan first imposed sanctions on North Korea following its July 2006 missile tests and strengthened the sanctions following the North's October 2006 underground detonation of a nuclear device. North Korean ships are banned from making port calls in Japan and North Korean imports are barred. North Koreans are not allowed to enter Japan in principle, and bank accounts suspected of being used to help fund the North's development of missiles and weapons of mass destruction development are frozen.