The government on Friday froze the assets of the operator of a North Korean ship seized for smuggling arms, the Foreign Ministry announced, just as Tokyo is engaged in talks with Pyongyang to return Japanese citizens kidnapped decades ago by North Korean agents.
The sanction against Ocean Maritime Management, which operated the vessel detained near the Panama Canal a year ago carrying Soviet-era arms, follows similar steps by the United States and U.N. blacklisting of the North Korean firm in July.
It is not immediately clear how many assets, if any, Ocean Maritime Management holds in Japan, the Finance Ministry said.