The government is considering blacklisting companies based in China or other countries known to be facilitating transactions with North Korea.

In the face of North Korea's unyielding ballistic missile and nuclear arms development efforts, Japan hopes to take a more efficient approach to cutting off the country's financial resources by targeting its biggest gateways of foreign income, a government official said Monday.

With China expected to protest the move, the government will carefully consider the timing and extent of newly imposed unilateral sanctions while monitoring talks toward the adoption of a new U.N. Security Council resolution approving additional sanctions, the official said.