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Japan bans North Korean ferry visits for 6 months http://today.reuters.com/News/CrisesArticle.aspx?storyId=T195015
Wed 5 Jul 2006
TOKYO, July 5 (Reuters) - Japan will ban visits by a North Korean ferry for six months in response to North Korea's missile launches, the top government spokesman said on Wednesday.
The Mangyongbong-92, a vessel that was once suspected of carrying parts for Pyongyang's missile programme and has been a key conduit for carrying money to North Korea, had been set to enter Niigata port in northern Japan on Wednesday for its seventh visit this year.
Chief cabinet secretary Shinzo Abe told a news conference that the passengers currently on board, including students at ethnic North Korean high schools in Japan, would be allowed to disembark.
"This is a humanitarian measure," he said.
Of the ship's 209 passengers, virtually all are high school students, according to an official at the company that manages tours for the ferry, the only regular direct link between Japan and North Korea.
A Coast Guard official said the ferry was outside Niigata and was being watched by patrol vessels.
North Korea test-fired at least six missiles on Wednesday, ratcheting up tensions in north Asia and drawing international condemnation.
The pro-Pyongyang General Association of Korean Residents in Japan (Chongryon) said in a statement that the ship was a key humanitarian lifeline for ethnic Korean residents in Japan.
"This ship is used for elderly people and students to visit relatives and take school trips," it added.
A Chongryon member told Reuters the missile launches and the ferry issue should be treated differently.
"I question whether is it right to endanger the lives of ethnic Koreans in Japan," he said.
A Japanese Foreign Ministry official said he was unable to comment at this point on what other sanctions might be imposed, saying the government still had to consider this.
North Korea has said in the past that it would consider the imposition of sanctions tantamount to a declaration of war.
Laws passed two years ago allow Tokyo to suspend remittances and trade, as well as take other steps to restrict the flow of money and goods.
Japanese investigators believe the Mangyongbong-92 was previously used to smuggle drugs and missile parts. North Korean defectors have said more than 90 percent of the parts used in North Korean missiles were brought from Japan.
About 600,000 ethnic Koreans live in Japan, and about 150,000 of them consider themselves to be North Koreans. Most are descendants of people who came voluntarily or were forcibly brought to Japan during its 1910-1945 colonisation of the Korean peninsula.
(Additional reporting by Isabel Reynolds and George Nishiyama)
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