Squeezing N Korea: old friends take steps to isolate regime

SEOUL: From kicking out North Korean workers and ending visa-free travel for its citizens, to stripping flags of convenience from its ships, Cold War-era allies from Poland to Mongolia are taking measures to squeeze the isolated country.

More such moves, with prodding from South Korea and the United States, are expected after North Korea recently defied UN resolutions to conduct its fifth nuclear test.

North Korea´s limited global links leave most countries with few targets for penalising the regime on their own.

Mounting sanctions over the years have made Pyongyang more adept at evasion and finding alternative sources for procurement, a recent paper by experts at Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology found. Nonetheless, South Korea has been especially active in pushing the North´s allies for unilateral action in hopes of reining in Pyongyang´s arms programme.

"If long-standing friends of North Korea continue to publicly curb their ties with the country, Pyongyang will have fewer places overseas where its illicit networks can operate unhindered or with political cover from the host capital," said Andrea Berger, deputy director of the proliferation and nuclear policy program at the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI). South Korean officials have declined to say whether they have made inducements to countries to punish North Korea.

"Presumably in the course of that diplomatic interaction it is also being made clear to Pyongyang´s partners that deeper trade ties with economies like South Korea will not be fully realizable" without taking steps against North Korea, Berger said.