Japan Takes Lead in Sanctioning N. Korea

Kenzo Oshima, President of the U.N. Security Council and Japan's ambassador to the U.N. talks to reporters about Security Council resolutions against North Korea in front of the Japanese Mission in New York, Wednesday, Oct. 12, 2006. (AP Photo/Osamu Honda) (Osamu Honda - AP)

SAKAIMINATO, Japan -- The Yong Gwang 1, one of 24 North Korean merchant ships docked in Japanese ports, bobs beside a pier loaded to the gills with its prized cargo _ rusty old bicycles that can fetch a good price on the black market in the impoverished North.

For years, this port on the Sea of Japan coast has been a regular stop for the North Koreans. But that will end Friday when Japan adopts the toughest sanctions by any country so far in response to North Korea's nuclear test.

Tokyo's sanctions include the closure of all Japanese ports to North Korean vessels, a ban on imports and exports, and a six-month ban on travel to Japan by all North Korean government officials.

In this quiet port town, North Korean trade has been a constant. The ships arrive loaded with crabs, clams or "matsutake" mushrooms, a delicacy among Japanese gourmets.

They return home filled with used bicycles or old household electrical appliances the Japanese might normally throw away, but which can be sold for a good price in the North.

The sanctions, approved by Japan's ruling party on Thursday, were to be finalized by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's Cabinet on Friday. Fishermen here said the North Korean crews have been told to pack up and leave by midnight Friday.

"We will feel it here," said dock worker Koji Kanetsuki of the bans. "But the world needs to do something. Japan has been through Hiroshima and Nagasaki. No good will come out of having nuclear weapons."

North Korea immediately condemned the move.

Song Il Ho, North Korea's ambassador in charge of diplomatic normalization talks with Japan, said his country would take "strong countermeasures" if Japan goes through with the sanctions, according to Japan's Kyodo News.

But Japan's action also underscores the difficulty of punishing the already isolated regime of Kim Jong Il.

Though it is the world's second-largest economy and a regional trade dynamo, Japan represents less than 5 percent of the total trade with North Korea, according to the Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency.

The North's most crucial trading partner by far is China, which accounts for 38.9 percent of its imports and exports, followed by South Korea, at 26 percent. In fact, even Thailand outstrips Japan _ accounting for 8.1 percent in 2005.