South Korea unveiled a package of new unilateral sanctions on the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) Tuesday over its latest nuclear test and rocket launch following the shutdown of a once-jointly-run factory park with Pyongyang last month.
The standalone sanctions included a ban on third-country ships having stayed in the DPRK within 180 days from entering South Korean ports, according to the office for government policy coordination which served as a control tower for the unilateral measures jointly drawn up by foreign, unification and maritime ministries.
The entry ban will be also applied to foreign-flag ships owned by the DPRK.
Seoul added 30 entities and 40 individuals of the DPRK to the blacklist suspected of having been involved in Pyongyang's weapons of mass destruction development. The list included six entities and two individuals of third countries that support the DPRK weapons program.
The blacklisted entities and individuals will be subject to restrictions on foreign exchange and financial transactions with South Korean counterparts and the freezing of their assets in South Korea.
Included in the list was Kim Yong Chol, who South Korea sees as having master-minded the sinking of a South Korean battleship and the shelling of a South Korean border island in 2010.
Kim serves as secretary of the ruling Workers' Party of Korea in charge of inter-Korean affairs, according to Seoul's estimate.
Restrictions on indirect exports and imports of DPRK products into South Korea will be strengthened, and South Koreans will be advised to refrain from visiting DPRK-run restaurants in overseas to block Pyongyang's foreign currency resources used for nuclear and missile development.
South Korea reportedly suspended a trilateral logistics project between the two Koreas and Russia.
A South Korean government official was quoted by Yonhap news agency as saying that Seoul notified Moscow of its decision to freeze the Rajin-Khasan project.
The project refers to a railroad-shipping linkage from Russia through a DPRK port to South Korea.
It plans to refurbish the DPRK's port city of Rajin and build a 54-km railroad connecting the port city to Russian border town of Khasan to transport Russian coal and products to South Korea.
It was at the center of "Eurasia Initiative" advocated by South Korean President Park Geun-hye as part of efforts to build trust with Pyongyang and strengthen cooperation with Moscow.
Park attended the signing ceremony of a relevant agreement during her summit in Seoul with Russian President Vladimir Putin in November 2013.
The entry ban on foreign-flag vessels having docked at the DPRK was seen as one of the toughest remaining options South Korea can choose, given that Seoul has already put in place an array of sanctions over the sinking in March 2010 of a South Korean navy corvette that killed 46 sailors.
The sinking, which South Korea claimed was caused by a DPRK torpedo attack, led Seoul to impose unilateral sanctions on Pyongyang in 2010, known as "May 24 measures" that include the prohibition of DPRK vessels from entering South Korean ports or sailing through its territorial waters. Pyongyang has denied any involvement in the incident.
The May 24 measures banned inter-Korean trade except at the Kaesong industrial complex, but South Korea announced its decision to close down the last remaining cooperation project with the DPRK on Feb. 10, three days after Pyongyang's launch of a long-range rocket, which was condemned by outsiders as a disguised test of ballistic missile technology.
According to Seoul's estimates, around 616 billion won (560 million U.S. dollars) had been funneled into the DPRK government since the Kaesong industrial zone began manufacturing products in December 2004.
About 70 percent of it had been siphoned off to finance Pyongyang's nuclear and missile developments and purchase luxury goods for the DPRK leadership.
The DPRK started off a new year with the test of what it claimed was its first hydrogen bomb on Jan. 6, the fourth of its nuclear detonations that brought about a series of bilateral and multilateral sanctions.
President Park Geun-hye said South Korea would create an environment in which the DPRK realizes that it can't survive with nuclear weapons and has no choice but to change.
On March 2, UN Security Council unanimously approved a new harsher resolution, including mandatory inspection of all cargo heading to and from the DPRK and a ban on exports of coal and mineral resources, to punish Pyongyang for its latest nuclear test and rocket launch.
Two days later, the European Union added 12 entities and 16 individuals to its list of sanctions targets subject to travel bans and asset freezes while promising to implement all sanctions newly adopted by the UN Security Council.
New U.S. sanctions on the DPRK, which came into force on Feb. 19 with a bipartisan support from the House and Senate, allowed for sanctions on entities and individuals found to have contributed to Pyongyang's weapons program and to have been involved in mineral trade with the DPRK.
On Feb. 10, Japan imposed its independent sanctions on Pyongyang, banning all DPRK vessels and third-country ships with records of dropping by the DPRK from accessing Japanese ports.
Tokyo also prohibited DPRK nationals from traveling to the archipelago.
