SEOUL, March 18 (UPI) -- The South Korean government may begin work on possible North Korean sanctions targets if Pyongyang tests a long-range missile.
A target list including North Korean officials would put more teeth in U.N. Security Council Resolution 1718, which was approved in 2006 after a North Korean nuclear test, Chosun Ilbo reports. The resolution approved sanctions, including freezing North Korean assets and banning arms sales and travel.
North Korea claims it plans to launch a satellite. But other governments have suggested that is a cover for a test of a long-range missile that would be capable of reaching the United States.
"Considering the positions of China and Russia, it's not easy to reach a new resolution at the U.N. Security Council if the North keeps insisting that the projectile it plans to launch is a satellite," an unnamed official said. "But there is some consensus that the North's launch of such a projectile would itself constitute a violation of Resolution 1718, even if it is a satellite."
