Anchor: The South Korean government has asked the UN Security Council’s North Korea Sanctions Committee to freeze the assets of 19 North Korean entities. Our Kim In-kyung has the details.

Report: A UN source said Tuesday, local time, that the EU and a handful of countries including South Korea, the U.S. and Japan submitted lists to the sanctions committee that request more North Korean entities be sanctioned.

The source said South Korea drew up its list based on recommendations from the DPRK Panel of Experts which assists the sanctions committee. The DPRK refers to the official name of North Korea, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. The panel is composed of the Security Council’s five permanent members plus South Korea and Japan. It collects information on the implementation of the sanctions and reviews, analyzes and recommends reforms to sanctions.

Last May, the sanctions committee submitted a report to the Security Council recommending the sanctioning of 19 North Korean entities and 17 individuals, but the report wasn’t adopted due to opposition from China. The report was not open to the public and apparently contained the overseas banking accounts of North Korea’s entities earning foreign currency.

The report is also believed to have listed the names of organizations and individuals that the committee suspected were likely involved in the development of nuclear weapons and missiles, and transactions of conventional weapons and luxury goods.

The U.S. has already asked the sanctions committee to freeze the assets of 17 North Korean entities, and Japan has submitted a separate list of assets to be frozen.

The committee has until next Tuesday to further designate entities on the list and then report to the Security Council. If no further entities are listed during that time, the Security Council will take action on its own within the following five days.

Kim In-kyung, KBS World Radio News.