TOKYO (Kyodo) -- Japan decided Friday to extend its trade embargo and other unilateral sanctions against North Korea for two years beyond their expiration on April 13.
The move came as there was no progress in sight on the issue of Pyongyang's abductions of Japanese citizens in the 1970s and 1980s, and in response to its repeated nuclear and ballistic missile tests.
Sanctions the government will extend include a ban on the entry into Japanese ports of North Korean-registered ships, such as the Mangyongbong-92 passenger-cargo ferry, except for humanitarian purposes, and on chartered flights between the two countries.
Japan imposed a set of unilateral sanctions following missile tests by Pyongyang in 2006 and has extended them several times, in addition to sanctions imposed in line with U.N. Security Council resolutions.
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