Seoul seeks to freeze NK accounts

Seoul is working with international powers to identify North Korean financial accounts to freeze as a possible measure if Pyongyang follows through with a long-range rocket launch later this month.

Government officials said the Lee administration was working with the international community to identify bank accounts abroad that hold money for the Stalinist state.

“Our first priority at this point is trying to convince North Korea not to carry out the launch. Beyond that, measures including financial ones are very much on the table,” a Seoul official said, asking not to be named.

The launch, slated for between Dec. 10 and 22, would be seen as the testing of ballistic missile technology and a breach of U.N. sanctions. Officials said Pyongyang had finished installing the third and final stage of the rocket, putting it on track for its launch window.

Foreign Minister Kim Sung-hwan warned of consequences.

“We will continue efforts with our neighbors to persuade North Korea to stop the launch,” he said in a webcast organized by his ministry. “But if it goes ahead with the launch, it will have a certain price to pay.”

Targeting remaining international bank accounts used by the North would be similar to efforts that froze its accounts in a bank in Macao, the Banco Delta Asia. Proponents of a tough line on Pyongyang have called for such a move to put the pinch on the provocative Kim Jong-un regime.

Meanwhile, Seoul was busy trying to both deter and prepare for the upcoming launch, ordering diplomats overseas to notify other governments the move would violate U.N. resolutions implemented after the North’s nuclear tests in 2006 and 2009.

On Tuesday, Washington, Seoul and Tokyo, agreed to work together to convince China and Russia to urge their neighbor against the launch. The stance emerged out trilateral talks in Washington involving chief nuclear negotiator Lim Sung-nam, the U.S. special envoy for North Korea policy, and

It is the second time this year for the Kim Jong-un regime to put the region on edge with an attempt to put a satellite into orbit. The previous try on April 13 was condemned by the UNSC in a presidential statement.

During the meeting, Lim said, the three envoys agreed the U.N. Security Council should take measures after the launch in accordance with the presidential statement, which stipulated taking unspecified actions to punish the recalcitrant regime.

Lim underscored that the administration will handle the matter in a “calm and stern matter.”

“In line with principles, we will first focus consultations on a direction to stop North Korea’s missile launch plan,” he said.

Watchers say the North is now likely to begin installing support equipment such as radars and cameras on the rocket. To be on schedule for the launch window, they say fuelling could take place over the weekend. <The Korea Times/Kim Young-jin>