FUKUOKA -- Tokyo's decision this week to ban overseas remittances to 15 entities and an individual suspected of having links to North Korea's weapons program have set off calls for even tougher measures to stop the illicit flow of money into the Stalinist state.</PARAGRAPH> <PHOTO> <TABLE WIDTH='250' ALIGN='RIGHT' BORDER='0'> <TR> <TD><IMG ALT='News photo' BORDER='0' SRC='../images/photos2006/nn20060922f2a.jpg' WIDTH='250' HEIGHT='165'/></TD> </TR> <TR> <TD><FONT SIZE='1'><B>Shigeru and Sakie Yokota address a news conference Tuesday in Kawasaki after the government announced it would impose financial sanctions against North Korea. </B> KYODO PHOTO</FONT></TD> </TR> <TABLE> </PHOTO> <PARAGRAPH>Finance Ministry officials and international financial experts say a ban on financial transactions involving North Korea is an effective way to curb Pyongyang's efforts to build missiles and weapons of mass destruction.</PARAGRAPH> <PARAGRAPH>The financial sanctions have pleased relatives of Japanese who were kidnapped to North Korea in the 1970s and 1980s, who are hoping the new sanctions will get Pyongyang to give them more information on their kin, and people in Niigata who oppose visits from the North Korean ferry Mangyongbong-92, which is suspected of smuggling cash. Japan banned port calls by the ferry for six months in July after North Korea conducted a battery of missile tests.</PARAGRAPH> <PARAGRAPH>Although both groups had long been pressing for a remittance ban, some say the financial sanctions are still not enough to halt the flow of money into the reclusive state. </PARAGRAPH> <PARAGRAPH>'It's a good first step, but it needs to be expanded and separate legislation is needed to stop the flow of goods from Japan to North Korea,' said Kazuyuki Matsuo, general secretary of the Fukuoka branch of the National Association to Rescue Japanese Kidnapped by North Korea. </PARAGRAPH> <PARAGRAPH>Experts say the financial sanctions are too narrow and that the targeted organizations can simply change their tactics to evade authorities.</PARAGRAPH> <PARAGRAPH>One problem is that North Korea's closest neighbors, China and Russia, have not yet imposed financial sanctions. A U.N. Security Council resolution urges U.N. member states to stop cash flows they believe will be used to fund the North's weapons programs.</PARAGRAPH> <PARAGRAPH>'Japan will have to work even closer with the international intelligence community to keep an eye on attempts by those on the list to set up accounts elsewhere and under different names,' said one commentator on a local Fukuoka television station Tuesday evening. 'It will also have to work closely with Chinese officials to keep an eye on major Japanese firms and individuals doing business in China to ensure that they don't send money to North Korea.' </PARAGRAPH> <PARAGRAPH>While electronic transfers are being closely monitored here, cash can still be smuggled out of Japan.</PARAGRAPH> <PARAGRAPH>In the 1970s and 1980s, tales of shoe boxes stuffed with cash from North Korean-owned pachinko parlors being sent to the North aboard the Mangyongbong-92 were legend.</PARAGRAPH> <PARAGRAPH>Former members of the pro-Pyongyang General Association of Korean Residents –

have testified that billions of yen in cash have been sent to North Korea in this manner.

One Japanese man living in Osaka, who worked for two decades at a North Korean-funded trading company in Japan, said Tuesday's ban will have only a short-term effect.

"Much of the money that reaches North Korea, especially the North Korean military program, comes via China and Chinese banks. Until China agrees to crack down on these banks and institutions, lots of money will still reach the North Korean military," said the man, who asked not be named.

Now that the government has banned the transmission of funds to some organizations, the next step is to monitor the sales of products, especially electronics, that might end up in North Korean weapons production.