Bill enacted to allow measures to be taken against North Korea

The Diet enacted on February 9 a bill to revise the Foreign Exchange and Foreign Trade Law to allow the government to impose unilateral economic sanctions against North Korea. Japanese Communist Party representatives voted against.

The JCP has said that the bill will counter the agreement of the six-way talks on North Korea which states, "Participating countries in the talks should not take any action that may deteriorate the situation in the process of a peaceful settlement of issues." (end)