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Angry Japan slams door on NKorean imports
2006-10-13
Japan has banned all imports from North Korea, hoping to inflict pain on the communist state's fragile economy in retaliation for its nuclear test. Packing their boats with bicycles, appliances and whatever else they could find, North Koreans raced to meet a midnight (1500 GMT) deadline for their 22 ships to leave Japanese ports on Friday. Japan's unilateral move cuts off a market for North Korean money-makers such as clams and crabs along with matsutake mushrooms -- which fetch hefty prices in Japan for their supposedly refined flavor. Japan hopes the ban will have repercussions on North Korea, Trade Minister Akira Amari said after a cabinet meeting approved the measures. Exports of marine products and matsutake mushrooms "have been a source of financing for their military," Amari said. "I think there will be a considerable impact." In Sakai port in western Tottori prefecture, where 11 North Korean ships were docked, crew members bound a mountain of second-hand bicycles onto their boat. "The crew members seem to be in a hurry loading lots of goods as they have to leave today," said port official Yasutake Nakamura. In northern Otaru port, the four North Korean cargo ships that had brought sea urchins to Japan were taking back everything they could, said local official Makoto Chikazawa. "They left with loads of goods, from old bicycles to fridges to desks," Chikazawa said. Japan's action comes as it lobbies at the UN Security Council for international sanctions against North Korea. Japan is particularly sensitive as Pyongyang fired a missile over its main island in 1998. But Japan has already slapped most of the sanctions at its disposal against North Korea, which conducts the bulk of its limited trade with China and South Korea. "I don't think the damage incurred by Japanese unilateral sanctions is going to be significant," said Lee Yong-hwa, a North Korea expert at Japan's Kansai University. "The amount of trade with Japan is limited." Japan imported 17.6 billion yen (148 million dollars) worth of goods -- largely seafood, mushrooms and tailored suits -- from the North in 2004. Japan banned the main ship between the countries, visits by diplomats and charter flights in response to Pyongyang's missile tests in early July. On Wednesday, Japan said it would not allow visits by any North Korean nationals, apart from the thousands of North Koreans who were born in Japan in a legacy of Tokyo's brutal colonial rule of the Korean peninsula. Details of the sanctions were announced Wednesday but needed the final green light from Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's cabinet. Abe, who took office last month after a career built as a hardliner on North Korea, has vowed to make the communist state pay dearly for its nuclear test announced Monday. His government said the sanctions were part of Abe's pledge to create a more assertive Japan that does not wait in defending its interests. US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is reportedly due to visit China, Japan and South Korea next week. But Yuriko Koike, the national security advisor to Abe, warned that US attention could drift with US midterm elections coming up and tension over Iran and Iraq. "What I'm interested in after visiting the United States is watching how much concern and commitment we can attract from the United States," Koike said. In an interview with Kyodo News in Pyongyang released Thursday, Song Il-ho, the North Korean ambassador handling relations with Japan, warned of "strong countermeasures" in response to the sanctions. Japan's land ministry summoned about 30 officials to a meeting to urge them to increase surveillance against possible attacks by North Korean agents. "Make sure to have more thorough checks at every place, so people will not worry," Yoshiaki Hirayama, the ministry's official in charge of crisis management, told them. Japan's police chief Iwao Uruma also urged stations nationwide to be on high alert. Muzi.com News
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